Wings
by The Neverending Meep
Summary: Sparky is a spirited young Emolga, who dearly loves her trainer, and will do anything for her. However, Sparky's happy life it turned on its head when her trainer gains an unusual 'ability'. Rated T for dark themes and suggestions.
1. Someone's Missing

**Prologue – Someone's Missing**

Accumula Town never has been the busiest of places, only really serving as a gateway for those venturing to or from Striaton City. The famed Professor Cypress living just a few kilometres away may be the reason this little hamlet receives any tourism at all, but a quiet and secluded lifestyle isn't always a bad thing.

Some like it that way.

Carefully nestled in between the poke centre and a picturesque line of trees sits a quaint little house. Modest and secretive to all but those who know of its existence, this humble home is inhabited by a happy family of four.

The first of these four members is Sparky the Emolga. Roused by the thin beam of light creeping its way through the inexpertly closed curtains, she stirs gently, and carefully rolls out of her 'ball' sleeping position. With a stretch and a yawn, Sparky rubs her shiny eyes, and peels away from the comfortable beanbag she was sleeping in. She makes sure to take extra care, so she doesn't disturb the peaceful sleep of her pokémon room-mates; Socks the Furret and Sir Higglesworth the Kadabra.

Socks has draped herself across Sir Higglesworth's shoulders, and the pair are currently lost in a happy slumber amidst the beanbag, so Sparky doesn't want to upset them.

Although she acknowledges that her name isn't exactly original, Sparky is perfectly happy with this name, as it was bestowed upon her by her loving trainer, and therefore she wouldn't change it for the world. She might not have the most creative nicknaming taste, their trainer, but in Sparky's eyes, she is the most loving and wonderful trainer a pokémon could ask for. Speaking of which…

"Where's Miss Holly?" she mumbles quietly, noticing the crumpled sheets of her trainer's bed, barren and empty. Sparky finds this odd because she is normally the first one up, being the most energetic of them all, and the best morning pokémon among them. Her trainer, on the other hand, prefers to sleep in until a slightly later time, being of that age where humans are lazy. Holly might be the nicest trainer in the world, according to Sparky, but waking her up too early does not yield the best results. Sparky has tried.

There was one time where Holly slept in until _eleven_ AM, which is a good three or four hours later than Sparky's stomach can normally stand without her breakfast. Sparky tried to wake Holly up by poking her in the cheek a few times, but didn't enjoy the aftereffect of being thrown into the opposite wall. Her beanbag was in the way to soften the collision, but Sparky learned not to disturb her trainer's sleep. Once was enough.

"Maybe Miss Holly's making a super special breakfast!" Sparky muses, her eyes lighting up at the thought. Delectable images of pancakes, pokeblocks and home-made poffins float lazily across her mind, and the invigorating notion causes her to forget her usual morning routine of washing her face and checking her appearance in the bathroom, and she instead rushes – almost glides – downstairs, now wanting a hearty feast of poke-pancake-poffinblocks!

"Hmm, strange…" Sparky mutters, sliding clumsily across the lino floor of the kitchen with her nostrils full of… nothing, "Miss Holly isn't preparing a super special breakfast?"

Sparky raises a pensive paw to her chin and muses for a second, blinking her beady little eyes. "Ooh!" she squeaks, struck with inspiration, and dashes off again.

She's careful to avoid knocking things over on another trip down the carpeted hallway, like the dresser table with the vase full of flowers, and she scoots into the lounge, the sheen of her black, white and yellow fur shimmering in the soft Saturday sunlight. However, the lounge yields no answers either. Her trainer isn't sat in her favourite chair, watching the TV and knitting like she normally does. The curtains are open, but there's no one to be found…

Sparky wanders over to the adjoining dining room, where a clean and tidy table sits innocently. All six chairs are tucked in underneath it, aligned almost too perfectly, and nothing appears out of place.

"Weird…" Sparky mutters, lost. "Where _is_ Miss Holly?"

A slow trudge back to the stairs has Sparky defeated. A few letters flop in through the letterbox as she toddles past, which she promptly picks up and arranges neatly.

"I wish I could read human…" she murmurs, squinting at the typed address on the letter, "Oh well. I'll bring these to Miss Holly, and she can read them to me!"

Another slow venture has Sparky ascending the stairs again, passing by the photos on the wall. Sparky has always enjoyed looking at these photos, because they tell her the story of her life with Holly, Socks and Sir Higglesworth.

Holly started out in the Johto region, where she befriended Sir Higglesworth as an Abra about five years ago. He was slow to learn, but with Holly's careful patience, he grew into a wise and knowledgeable Kadabra after a little while, but not before Socks joined them as a Sentret. Socks was a timid little Sentret, jumping at the slightest of sounds or movements. Holly worked Socks through this constant fear though, and although Socks has never been the brightest of pokémon, she and Sir Higglesworth quickly became friends, as dictated by the third photo on the frame, which shows Socks draped across Sir Higglesworth's shoulders like a makeshift scarf, and Sir Higglesworth donning a hat and cane to please Holly the photographer, as it was the sophisticated way in which he presents himself that earned him the nickname.

The fourth photo depicts Holly travelling by boat with her two companions to a new region; Unova. A light breeze is blowing through her long dark hair, and she's snuggled in close to Socks – now a Furret – and Sir Higglesworth so that they can all fit into the self-taken shot, where Socks is resting across both of their shoulders this time, and Holly herself is crouching down slightly so that she's roughly level with Sir Higglesworth, and pressing her face against his. Her bright blue eyes are sparkling in the reflected sunlight, while Liberty Island can barely be seen just beyond the horizon, with the towering spires of Castelia City behind it, and innumerable choppy waves meeting a cloudy sky, painting the rest of the picture.

A couple of steps further up the stairs shows Sparky's entry into the family. Holly and Sparky met by chance in Route 5. She was feasting on a merry meal of Chesto Berries in her tree when a Natu flew past, subsequently spooking her. She fell from her tree and into the long grass, which rustled loudly and attracted the attention of a nearby trainer; Holly.

Wanting to defend her territory, Sparky valiantly sprang into action, but she was fooled by the sneaky Socks, who – at Holly's command – thwarted Sparky's intentions of paralysing Socks with a Thunder Wave by using the very same move, only faster!

Unable to move, Sparky next found herself inside of a poke ball, and the next thing she knew, she was a part of the family, as indicated by the sixth and final picture on the stairs;

It's set a couple of years after the previous photo, where Holly has moved residence again to the quiet and serene Accumula town. Autumn leaves are fluttering merrily across the sky, and all four of them are standing outside their current house.

"Miss Holly looks tired in this picture…" Sparky analyses, noticing the dark rings underneath Holly's eyes and the frail smile that accompanied it, looking almost as if it were forced. The tone of her skin is a shade paler in this photo than the previous five, and the spark in her eyes isn't present, but there's no doubt in Sparky's mind that her trainer is happy in this photo. She's glancing upwards to her ecstatic Emolga, who's perched atop her head and balancing on one foot, while Sir Higglesworth is rolling his eyes at Sparky's mischievousness, and Socks is stretching across both pairs of shoulders, smiling obliviously. Holly is wearing a long sleeved hoodie instead of one of her usual tee shirts, and has her arms crossed this time, having employed one of Accumula Town's residents to take the picture.

"Such lovely memories…" Sparky chimes, tearing her eyes away from the nostalgia and climbing up the last stair, where the bathroom lay directly ahead.

"I'll give these to Miss Holly later" she decides, placing the letters down on a small table outside the bathroom and entering inside so she can start her morning ritual, albeit about twenty minutes late.

Sparky stumbles up the steps to reach the porcelain sink, so that she can access the taps, and begins to wash her face with her wet paws, very conscious of the static electricity that this could create. However, something reflected in the mirror of the medicine cabinet above the sink has her attention caught…

"Hunh?" she squeaks, spinning around to confront the distraction, "…hey, wow!"

Jumping from the steps, Sparky finally finds her trainer, "Miss Holly, I didn't know you could fly!"

But as much as Sparky wills it, Holly does not respond.

"Your eyes are closed…" Sparky muses, "Does it take a lot of concentration to fly like that?"

Still no response.

"Oh right… I don't speak human" Sparky chuckles to herself, "I know! I'll get Sir Higglesworth! He's bound to know!"

"Stay there Miss Holly, I'll be right back!" Sparky calls, and dashes back into the bedroom, where both of her room-mates are still fast asleep.

"Guys, come quick!" Sparky cries, shaking the two awake, "It's amazing!"

"…what is it, Sparky?" Sir Higglesworth's deep voice grumbles, slowly rising out of his slumber.

"It's Miss Holly!" Sparky chimes enthusiastically, "She's _flying!_"

"Flying…?" Sir Higglesworth falters, not quite awake yet. He's used to Sparky pulling pranks and telling 'mistruths' just for fun, so the wizened Kadabra is predictably cynical of this young, naïve Emolga, stating that their trainer can fly.

"Come quick, I'll show you!" Sparky encourages, grabbing Sir Higglesworth's arm in a poor attempt to drag him out of their beanbag bed and to the bathroom.

"Alright, all _right…_" Sir Higglesworth grumbles, allowing himself to be pulled out of the beanbag. Meanwhile, a still sleeping Socks simply slides from his shoulders, flopping lazily onto the beanbag without so much as a stir.

"Flying. Peh" Sir Higglesworth yawns, slowly padding after the excited Sparky along the soft floors, "Humans cannot fly, period. Why on earth does Sparky insist that Lady Holly can?"

"C'mon, Sir Higglesworth!" Sparky pleads impatiently at the door, "Miss Holly can't fly forever!"

"I assure you, Sparky" He states, ambling half-consciously through the doorway, "Humans cannot-"

But then Sir Higglesworth _sees_. His eyes widen with panic, and his spoon falls to the ground with a clatter. For a few moments, all Sir Higglesworth can do is _stare._

"See? Told ya Miss Holly could fly!" Sparky exclaims, jumping about excitedly.

"Y-y-yes, that is… indeed, a rather brilliant example of flying!" Sir Higglesworth stifles, lying through his teeth, "Did you want to go make some breakfast, Sparky! I'm awfully hungry all of a sudden!"

"No way, not yet!" Sparky cries, "I've gotta show Socks! She'll love to see this!"

"No, don't do-" Sir Higglesworth starts, but it falls on deaf ears as Sparky charges out of the bathroom and down the hallway.

"…that" he sighs. But then his attention snaps back to his current problem; Holly.

"Lady Holly, respond!" he shouts, trying to get her attention. She does nothing.

"Lady Holly, I implore you, please respond!" he cries, floating up to her with telekinesis and shaking her. But his efforts are in vain…

Meanwhile, Sparky is slowly rousing the lazy Socks out of her sleep.

"C'mon Socks! C'moooonnnnnn!" Sparky pleas, poking the young Furret repeatedly.

"Nooo, I don't wanna go to Day Care…" Socks mumbles subconsciously, rolling over and burying herself further into the beanbag, "…you can't make me…"

"Gah…" Sparky grumbles, losing patience. However, she has an ace up her sleeve. Charging up a little spark of electricity in her palm, an impish glint appears in her eyes and she jabs Socks roughly with the static!

"YAAAAGH!" Socks screeches, jumping out of the beanbag and several feet into the air, "What the?!"

"Yay, you're awake!" Sparky giggles, curling her hand into a fist behind her back.

"…yup. I'm up" Socks mumbles sleepily, scratching her back. "But not for long. Come at me, beanbag" she challenges, spreading her limbs out again and moving to collapse back into it.

"Nooo, no no no, no more sleep!" Sparky cries, diving in the way and holding Socks up, "I've gotta show you something. It's awesome!"

"Wha? Awesome?" Socks murmurs, retiring from the attempt to crash back into the beanbag and instead settling on just a stretch of her long, skinny body. "What's awesome?"

"Miss Holly's flying!" Sparky gasps, "Come see!"

"Flying?" Socks responds, just as sceptical as Sir Higglesworth was. She rubs her tired eyes, and says "Whaddya mean flying? She's a human. They can't fly… can they?"

"Yeah, I thought that myself!" Sparky exclaims, "But then I saw it, and Sir Higglesworth agrees with me, and he knows everything, so it must be true!"

"Higgle says so…?" Socks queries, surprised, "So you're not making it all up?"

"Nope!" Sparky cries, "It really really is true! Quick, come see!"

"Alright…" Socks mumbles, blinking blearily, "You're gonna have to drag me though. My legs are still asleep"

"Gah, fine…" Sparky chuckles, and strains to pull the lazy Socks' body towards the bathroom, where a panicky Sir Higglesworth is fretting.

"Oh bother, what do I do?!" he pleads with himself desperately, trying to think of some ingenious answer before more innocent eyes can be scarred. But the sounds of Sparky dragging Socks' unwilling body ever closer forces him to take drastic measures.

"That will have to do!" he exclaims, exiting the room and closing the door sharply. Just in time for Socks and Sparky to appear from around the corner.

"Heyyy, Sir Higglesworth!" Sparky grunts, still dragging Socks for all she's worth, "Is Miss Holly still flying?"

"Umm…" Sir Higglesworth hesitates, unable to think of a response in time.

"Aww, don't tell me she made it up?" Socks groans, her face falling into a dejected frown, "I fell for it again! Stupid Socks, stupid!"

"No no, Lady Holly is indeed flying!" Sir Higglesworth stammers, placating Socks' rapidly plummeting spirits, "She just wants some time to practise and, uhh… improve her technique, so that she may impress you further next time!"

"B-but I haven't seen _this_ time yet…" Socks mumbles, "Can I see trainer now, please?"

"I am afraid she has locked the door, Socks!" Sir Higglesworth flails an excuse, "She must really want to practice!"

"Locked?" Socks queries, raising a suspicious eyebrow, "… that door has a lock?"

"Yes it does, Socks!" Sir Higglesworth insists, slapping her hand to stop her from trying the handle.

"Ow! Heyyy, what was that for, Higgle?" Socks complains, recoiling from Sir Higglesworth's assault.

"That was for disbelieving in my ingenuousness" Sir Higglesworth snaps, "Now, do not do that again, OK? I _abhor_ being doubted"

"…OK, you just said a lotta really long words…" Socks yawns, raising an eyebrow towards Sir Higglesworth, "But whatever it means, I don't agree with it. I wanna see trainer flying!"

"Argh, fine!" Sir Higglesworth concedes, "B-but how about I make you both some breakfast first?!" he suggests, struck by a lucky bout of inspiration.

"Breakfast?!" both girls shout at once.

"About time!" Sparky cries, swooping downstairs, "I've been waiting all morning!"

Socks follows after Sparky, ambling clumsily down the stairs with her long, unwieldy body, and Sir Higglesworth waits until they're both out of eyeshot.

Before breaking down.

"Oh dear…" he sniffs, a tear escaping from his eye, "Why did you do it, Lady Holly? W-was there anything I could've done?"

"C'mon, Higgle!" Socks' voice echoes from downstairs, "Making breakfast involves making breakfast, dude!"

Sir Higglesworth stares blankly at the top photo on the wall for a few moments, depicting the four of them together outside the house, and mutters, "…how will I tell them?"

Gathering himself, the wizened Kadabra slowly descends the stairs, leaving his beloved trainer to fly in peace…


	2. Hidden Secrets

**Hidden Secrets**

An Ashen faced Sir Higglesworth slowly descends the stairs to the ground floor, feeling a gut wrenching mixture of guilt and disbelief.

"Whatever happened?" he mumbles to himself, "I could tell that Lady Holly was having some troubles, but I never thought she would actually commit – syrup?"

Sir Higglesworth looks down, and notices the sticky mess that he has just walked into, which doesn't bode well for the kitchen just beyond the closed door.

"Oh dear, what have those two done…" he sighs, hopping on one leg to try and avoid making any more mess, "Now is not the time to worry. I must keep our family together. Lady Holly would be displeased if I just let things fall apart"

Careful to avoid the spilled syrup with his other leg, he forces the kitchen door open and hops through, "_What_ has happened here?!"

In the few minutes it has taken for Sir Higglesworth to get downstairs, Sparky and Socks have made a spirited attempt to cook breakfast. However, things didn't go exactly as planned for the two girls, due to a lack of experience or decent coordination. The room is full of acrid black smoke from the burning of food, the sink is piled high with dirty dishes already, and most of the floor is covered in syrup, where Socks accidentally knocked over a large bottle of the stuff. In their defence though, they have _somewhat_ successfully cooked a very tall stack of pancakes –also drowned in syrup – which are swaying dangerously atop the plate they're resting on.

"About time, Higgle!" Socks squeaks, her face black with smoke – along with the chef's hat she's 'acquired' – and her eyes shining with self-achievement, "You were too slow, so we got bored and made our own breakfast!"

"Awesome, huh?!" Sparky giggles, also donning a chef's hat, and casually throwing a spatula behind her in the hope that it reaches the sink. It misses horribly, and clatters to the ground, but she doesn't seem to mind.

"O-oh, yes, good job girls…" Sir Higglesworth winces, less than impressed at all the mess they'd managed to burden him with in such a short time – on top of everything else.

"_I_ shall take that for you, Sparky" he insists, prying the plate full of pancakes from her before she can attempt to carry it into the kitchen with her stubby little hands, "So that you two don't spill anything else?"

"Oh, yeah…" Socks mumbles, looking down bashfully, "You noticed the syrup, huh?"

Sir Higglesworth almost manages a chuckle at Socks' attempt to get out of trouble by playing dumb, and simply rolls his eyes. "Yes, socks. I noticed the syrup"

"How could he miss it, Socks? It's everywhere!" Sparky laughs, blowing Socks' cover immediately and provoking an exasperated frown from her.

"Uhh… yeah. Sorry about that Higgle" Socks admits, catching up to him and splashing more syrup along the way, "I'll get it all cleaned up, I promise!"

"It is OK, Socks" Sir Higglesworth says, plastering a strained smile across his face as the plate of pancakes reach the table with the dulled clatter of china hitting fabric, "Now, could one of you open a window, please? I rather like breathing…"

"Sure thing Higgle!" Sparky cries, floating past him and jumping to reach the latch on the nearest window. Several determined swipes has the thing edged open, and fresh air creeps back into the house once again, slowly thinning out the choking black smoke.

"That's… better!" Sir Higglesworth coughs, waving the smoke away towards the opened window. Realising that the girls had the forethought to prepare the table already – likely out of boredom awaiting his arrival, he surmises – he carefully sits at the head of the table, with Socks and Sparky joining him on opposite sides. Sparky sits herself on top of a few books as well so that she can actually _see_ over the table, being barely a metre tall.

"Hey, why're you in Trainer's seat, Higgle?" Socks queries, staring at him with a curious look, tilting her head sideways to illustrate this notion, "What if she gets hungry for some of these epic pancakes we made?"

"…Oh, r-right!" Sir Higglesworth stutters, snapping out of his daze and shuffling around to his own seat on the other side of the table, "Sorry Socks, I was… distracted. I'll get these pancakes served now"

It baffles him exactly how they were able to pile pancakes five feet high, when the pair of them didn't reach that height combined, but nevertheless, he has little trouble sorting them out evenly, thanks to his telekinetic powers. He makes sure to split them into _four_ piles, continuing his façade for the girls' sakes, and the stack of syrupy, slightly burnt pancakes, is slowly shared between them.

"Thanks Higgle!" Socks cries, before the pair dig in, showing little hesitation in burying their faces in their respective sticky piles. It seems as though no time at all has passed when Sir Higglesworth's thoughts are once again disrupted;

"Hey… gonna eat those?"

His thoughts disappear like poofs of smoke, and Socks' face blurs into his vision, eyeing his stack of pancakes hungrily.

"…oh. You can have them, Socks. I'm… not that hungry today"

"Awesome! Thanks again, Higgle!"

All except one of the pancakes in front of him are swiped away, removed from his almost static line of vision. But more guilt forces its way through him when he sees Holly's empty seat, with her stack of pancakes sitting innocently in front of it…

'_How long can I keep this up?'_ he thinks to himself, unaware that he's staring to the point of hurting his eyes, _'It's only going to be so long before they realise that something's not right…'_

"M-make sure that you don't touch Lady Holly's breakfast, OK girls?" Sir Higglesworth stammers, physically tearing his eyes away from the lamenting sight opposite him and dismounting his seat, "Like you said Socks, she may become… hungry"

"Sure thing, Higgle!" she and Sparky reply in near unison, both of their mouths bulging with pancakes. Sparky pays little attention to him dragging himself back towards the hallway again, because she's too absorbed by the pancakes, but Socks has some concerns.

"Hey, is it just me, or is Higgle acting kinda weird today?" She suggests to Sparky, who is still happily tucking into her dwindling pile.

"I…'onno?" Sparky gabbles through a mouthful of food, followed by a swallow, "I guess he's just shocked about Miss Holly flying, that's all!"

"Must've been one hell of a surprise, then" Socks muses, glancing over to his sole remaining pancake, "I mean, he didn't touch his food, and he loves pancakes"

"He loves _Miss Holly's_ pancakes" Sparky corrects her, raising her index finger into the air to illustrate her 'making a point'.

"That's true…" Socks concedes, "Miss Holly's pancakes are the best in the world, huh?"

"Mm-hmm!"

"She's gonna be so proud of us when she sees that we've made breakfast by ourselves!" Socks enthuses, stirring conversation again, "I mean sure, we made some mess, and got the place a little smoky, but the food's great, and we only set the house on fire once!"

"Not to mention getting that I got the stove started by myself!"

"Yeah, that was awesome Sparky! Where'd you learn that?!"

"You know those clicking sounds it normally makes before the fire starts? That's electricity! I make electricity, so I just put two and two together, y'know?"

"Yeah, you sure taught that silly stove!"

"Yeah, 'cause I'm awesome, huh?"

"…"

"Aww c'mon, say it!" Sparky pleads, looking for a confidence boost, "We'd still be hungry if it weren't for me!"

"But if I do, you'll spend like the next week bragging about it!" Socks sighs, "Remember what happened when we played chess?"

"But that was only cause I beat you really bad!" Sparky counters, standing up from her chair and walking over to a tentative Socks on the other side.

"Hey, it's not my fault I don't know how to play!" Socks retorts, edging away, "You said you were gonna teach meee…"

"Say it"

"…nu!"

"Say it"

"Nooo…!"

"Say it!" Sparky teases, jabbing Socks in the waist with a spark of electricity.

"OW!" Socks cries, flailing her short limbs in protest, "Don't do that Sparks! You know I don't like it!"

"Then say it!" Sparky grins mischievously, "And I'll stop!"

"…fine"

"I'm listening…" Sparky giggles, cupping a hand to her ear for more teasing.

"…you're awesome" Socks mumbles quietly, wanting this situation over and done with.

"I'm what?" Sparky teases again, charing up more electricity in her hand, "I didn't catch that last part!"

"You're awesome, OK?!" Socks groans exasperatedly, "Now go be awesome somewhere else, please?"

"Yeaaaahh, I'm awesome!" Sparky cries, whooshing past Socks and charging around the table excitedly, "YEEAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Unable to cover her sensitive ears because of her tiny arms, she decides to simply leave Sparky alone with her wild shouting, and go see what Sir Higglesworth is up to.

"The guy's been acting totally weird since this morning" she wonders to herself, clambering unsteadily up the stairs again, "Something must be wrong…"

It doesn't take her long to locate her friend, simply sat at the top of the stairs outside the bathroom. He's resting against the adjacent wall, holding in his hands one of the letters that Sparky had brought up earlier. He's gazing at the letter in question, but his eyes aren't moving.

"He's zoned out again?" Socks mumbles, surprised, "This isn't like him…"

She jumps up the last stair, landing softly on the carpeted floor, and casually sidles beside him, resting smoothly against the wall next to Sir Higglesworth,

"…hey there, Higgle"

It takes a few moments for Sir Higglesworth to respond, "…hunh? Who? What?"

"Are you… OK, dude?" Socks enquires, eyeing him worriedly, "You've been acting strange all morning. Like, I spilled all that syrup earlier, and you didn't even yell, man. What's wrong?"

"I-It's nothing Socks, really" Sir Higglesworth attempts to shrug off a blunt lie, "I'm just-"

"Distracted?" Socks cuts in, finishing his sentence for him.

"Y-yes. Nothing to worry about, though. I thank you for your concerns, however. H-how is Sparky doing?"

"She's being… awesome" Socks grimaces, remembering her little 'obligation' from earlier, "But we both know that that's not why I'm here, huh?"

"I'm fine Socks, seriously. Please, st-"

"You're _not_ fine, Higgle" Socks interjects once again, causing her friend's eyes to narrow from displeasure at being repeatedly interrupted.

"I-I'm not a smart pokémon. I know that…" Socks hesitates, looking down and rubbing her stubby paws together, "But I know _you_, man. And I _know_ that you're not right today. Now you tell me. What's wrong?"

Sir Higglesworth's eyes visibly dart around their sockets, killing any chance he had of attempting another bluff. With his skin already starting to clam up, he reluctantly concedes to the impossible.

With a deep, reserved sigh, he says "…it's these letters that were delivered for Lady Holly. I'm having trouble transcribing the text"

"Oh… OK" Socks replies, unconvinced, "And why are you trying to… train scribe them, whatever that means?"

"Read, Socks. I am trying to read them" Sir Higglesworth explains more simply, managing to hide behind his lie for a bit longer. "I understand that there's an abundance of red writing on these letters, and I can perceive that red writing is ominous, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what the words are trying to say…"

"Agh, more long words…" Socks winces, her brain already hurting from trying to comprehend what Sir Higglesworth just said, "W-why is reading these letters so important, dude? Can't you just leave them to Trainer?"

"B-because they contain information, Socks" Sir Higglesworth states matter-of-factly, "If I am able to decipher them, it may provide me with some reasons"

"Reasons?"

"Yes, reasons"

"What kinda reasons?"

"Reasons as to why…" he falters, the papers shaking in his hands, "W-why…"

But his courage fails him once again, at the thought of what he was almost forced to divulge, and his head tips forwards. It crashes into his knees, seemingly with no concern for its host's safety, and to Socks' absolute shock, Sir Higglesworth lets out a huge, anguished sob.

For a while, all Socks can do is stare. In the five years she's known Sir Higglesworth, she's always known him as a stoic pillar of strength, maintaining his composure at all times regardless of the situation. But as tears stain the letter in his hands, dripping softly onto the carpet, even she can tell that something is seriously wrong here. Now she faces an internal dilemma; does she leave her friend to himself, and spare what little dignity he has remaining? Or does she stay and comfort him? Both, in her mind, could backfire horribly…

"…This has something to do with Trainer, doesn't it?" Socks dares, putting all the clues together and forming a theory. With a comforting hug, she adds "I mean… you normally just let her read her mail, and you like, never get upset. So it's gotta be something big?"

Face stricken with tears, Sir Higglesworth slowly peers out from behind his knees. There's no point in lying about it any longer.

"…yes"

"C-can I see Trainer?" Socks suggests tentatively, "I'd really like to see her…"

"…Alright" Sir Higglesworth relents, wiping his eyes and dragging himself back to his feet, "You deserve to see Lady Holly"

"Thank you, Higgle" Socks says appreciatively, also forcing herself to her feet, "She's… just through here, right?" she asks, reaching for the bathroom door handle.

"Nooo, not yet!" Sir Higglesworth exclaims, pouncing on opportunity as it arises, "The house is a mess!"

"Huh?" Socks queries, looking back at him and raising an eyebrow, "Why's that matter?"

"Oh, do come on, Socks" Sir Higglesworth scolds her, regaining some of his confidence, "We both know that Lady Holly would vastly appreciate it if the house were tidy!"

"…good point" Socks concedes, raising on hand to her chin in pensive fashion, and pointing towards Sir Higglesworth with the other, "Let's get the house cleaned up first then, huh?"

"If you can get Sparky to help you as well, that would be good" Sir Higglesworth smiles weakly,

"…thank you for being there for me, Socks"

"Heyyy, it's no problem Higgle!" Socks laughs airily, "I've known you since I was Lv4. Why wouldn't I be there for you when you needed it?"

"You are a good friend, Socks. I thank you"

"No worrriiieeees!" Socks cries, tumbling down the stairs as a result of rushing and clumsiness, but luckily sustaining no injury thanks to her soft, rubbery body, "Oh, and I won't tell Sparky!" she adds, before disappearing behind the wall and dashing off towards the kitchen to start cleaning.

"…and I am a horrible friend, for treating them like this" Sir Higglesworth berates himself, collapsing back down again, "Oh, I'm so sorry, Socks. First I deny you a basic right, and now I'm about to scar you for life…"

And while one overburdened mind falls to pieces upstairs, two naïve and innocent minds are frantically cleaning downstairs, encouraged at the thought of seeing their beloved trainer.

"…they say you have to be cruel to be kind" Sir Higglesworth sobs to himself, staring blankly at his knees again, "But is it really kind, to be this cruel?"

* * *

**Author's note:**

**Hey there everyone. An RL friend suggested that I continue this, so my arm's been twisted, and here's a new chapter. **

**Just a warning for those with weak constitutions; it's likely to get a lot darker than this. I don't know how long it's gonna be just yet, but I'm aiming for at least 15-20 chapters. I've got some idea of what's gonna happen now, so…**

**Please review if you can spare a couple of minutes. **


	3. Scars

**Chapter Three – Scars**

"Sparrrkyyyy!" An elated Socks yells, rushing down the hallway and spilling yet more syrup across the lino of the kitchen floor, "Higgle said we can see Trainer if we-"

But her sentence is stopped short at the sight she encounters. Socks had anticipated seeing Sparky dashing madly around the table, still shouting "I'm awesome!" – hence the reason for her previous shouting – but to her surprise, her lively friend is being uncharacteristically calm, simply sitting at the table, wielding a blue crayon and scribbling enthusiastically on a sheet of paper.

"Sparky?" Socks asks, somewhat confused at this unusual lack of energy, "Are you… OK?"

"Oh, hey Socks" Sparky replies softly, poking her tongue out in concentration as she manipulates the crayon – which is easily a third of her size – across the paper. "I got bored of running, so I thought I'd draw stuff"

"Ooh, that sounds like fun!" Socks cries, her excitement building, "Got a red? I'll join you!"

"Sure thing" Sparky chimes, grabbing a red crayon from an untidy pile of assorted writing implements and handing it to Socks, "Sooo… what were you saying earlier?"

"Hunh?" Socks questions, already absorbed in the idea of drawing a picture, "What _was_ I saying…?"

She wracks her brains for all she's worth, trying her best to remember, but past events have simply slipped her mind, and all this collected effort dissolves into a defeated shrug. Her tiny arms flop lazily down to her side once again, and Socks' faded spirits get the best of her, forcing an exasperated sigh from her lips, "Dammit…"

"You can't remember?" Sparky says, shocked, "But it was only like a minute ago!"

"Heyyy, you know my memory sucks…" Socks mumbles, deflated, "I-I saw all these shiny crayons, and I forgot…"

"Aww, well I'm sure it'll come back to you, huh?" Sparky tries to encourage her, "I mean, if you forgot that easily, it can't be too important… right?"

"Hey, yeah! I'll just wait for my memory to come back!" Socks exclaims, grabbing a sheet of paper from the hefty pile on the table and shuffling into the seat next to Sparky, "So uhh… whatcha drawing?"

"Well, I've got a picture of you…" Sparky chuckles, showing Socks the first of her three drawings. Sparky would be the first to admit that she's not the greatest artist, as this picture consists of several blocks of scribbles, alternating between brown and yellow in colour, vaguely resembling Socks' ferrety shape, and an enormous black smile where her face presumably would be, ignoring the borders of the 'face' itself and extending onto the white of the paper.

"Aww, I'm so cute! I love the huge smile!" Socks giggles, "And the other ones are you and Higgle?"

"Almost" Sparky smiles, showing her the second picture, this one indeed of Sir Higglesworth. Being a Kadabra, he's infinitely more complicated to draw than Socks the Furret, but Sparky has tried her best, giving him a brownish blob for a torso, similarly coloured sticks for limbs, and a yellow rounded triangle for the head. She's made an effort to include a red blob for the star on his forehead, with immense 'detail' on his moustache, consisting of furious yellow scribbles either side of his mouth, which again is a humongous black smile. One extra detail that Sparky has added, however, is Sir Higglesworth's hat. It may simply be a black boxy shape atop his head, but Sparky is rather proud of her creativity here, as she has never actually seen Sir Higglesworth wearing his hat.

"Ooh, awesome work on the moustache!" Socks giggles, "The hat's a nice touch, too. When'd you see him wearing it?"

"I…I haven't, actually" Sparky admits, placing the picture down again, "But he's been kinda down today, huh? So I thought this'd cheer him up!"

"That'll do it for sure!" Socks enthuses her, "So what's the last picture? You?"

"Nope!" Sparky answers simply, "I'm still workin' on it, but you can look if you want?"

Socks peers over Sparky's shoulder too have a look at what she's drawing. The third picture consists of their trainer, Holly.

"You didn't get to see Miss Holly flying, so I thought I'd draw a picture and show you!" Sparky explains, a wide, innocent smile stretching across her face. The picture's a simpler one this time, with blue scribbles to indicate the denim jeans that Holly practically lived in, showing a few streaks of white along them as an attempt at detailing the rips and tears that her jeans had acquired over many years of wearing them. A plain blob of grey depicts the presence of her t shirt, with some strange green and red shape splashed on the front of it, and five peach coloured blobs of varying sizes to represent her head and limbs. Sparky has tried her best to include Holly's long black hair cascading down behind her, but her limited drawing ability has meant that this endeavour didn't go too well. Socks finds it strange that this picture lacks a ridiculously huge smile like the other two…

"H-hey, why isn't trainer smiling?" she asks, wanting to find out why before she forgets again, "I would've thought she'd be happy that she'd learned to fly?"

"I thought that at first too" Sparky mumbles, focusing as she adds the finishing touches to her picture. "But then I figured that she must've been concentrating really hard to do it, y'know? Her eyes were closed, so it had to be pretty difficult…"

"What's that sticking out of her neck?" Socks asks, squinting at the line of brown that Sparky has just scrawled.

"I dunno…" Sparky admits, "I think it was helping her fly or something"

"Hmm…" Socks muses, before suddenly shouting "OH! I remember now!"

"Remember? Remember what?" Sparky asks.

"Higgle said we could see trainer if we clean up the kitchen!" Socks announces, abandoning her drawing attempt for now and pointing to the kitchen opposite them, "Wanna help?"

"Ooh, yay!" Sparky cries, stumbling down from the table again, "It'd be awesome to see Miss Holly again! I can give her my pictures!"

"Agh, now I gotta draw one!" Socks giggles, "Cause I wanna give her a picture too!"

"Well, let's get the kitchen cleaned up first, and then you can draw huh?" Sparky suggests, and they both enthusiastically dive into the kitchen, making an honest attempt to clean the room up!

Several loud clatters of pots and pans can be heard throughout the humble dwelling, an echoing cacophony that a frustrated Sir Higglesworth can hear all too well as he still attempts to decode the clandestine details of Holly's mail.

"L-let's see…" he struggles, squinting at the crumpled, tear-stained letter, "These symbols somewhat resemble Unown, so I should be able to decipher human writing by comparing them both…"

His head hurting at the sheer effort required just to attempt to translate what lies in front of him, and the girls' noisy cleaning attempts only exacerbating things further.

"L… A… S… T… oh, this is hopeless!" he gives up, releasing the letter and allowing it to flutter back down to the ground, where it gets itself caught under the bathroom door.

"Even if I _can_ translate the letters, I have no idea what the words mean!" a defeated Sir Higglesworth sobs, breaking down and once again resting his head against his knees, "Lady Holly, please forgive me!"

With the crashing of pots and pans still evident from downstairs, Sir Higglesworth forces himself together, and shakily stands up.

"Not now, Higgle" he tells himself sternly, "I must be strong. I can't let Lady Holly down!"

Forcing himself to _not_ stare at the pictures on the walls, for fear of losing himself in a hollow, empty void of wistful lament, he instead slowly shuffles down the hallway towards the bedroom.

"I hope it's still in here…" he mumbles to himself, gently placing down his spoon for a moment so that he can negotiate Holly's chest of drawers open. His strength is limited, but repeated tugging at the old, splintered wood has the top drawer slowly edging open, awkwardly shifting from one corner to the other, as if determined to repel this intruder.

"Blasted… thing!" An exasperated Sir Higglesworth grunts, wiping sweat from his brow and giving the drawer one last yank. The sudden change in momentum has the drawer falling out of its chest completely!

The heavy drawer crashes across the floor with a loud, sharp, splintering noise, just barely avoiding Sir Higglesworth's own feet, and its contents spill out everywhere.

"Hopefully the girls didn't hear that…" he mutters, looking back towards the door. The clattering of pots and pans downstairs appears to have stopped, but luckily for him, his antics seem to have gone unnoticed thus far. He's not concerned about his activities, rather the girls getting worried over him. He doesn't want to upset them more than necessary, particularly Socks, as she is far more sensitive than the carefree Sparky.

A few moments of waiting has him convinced that neither of the girls heard him, so he wades into the nostalgia to extract… his top hat.

"Hello old friend…" he smiles weakly, dusting it off and carefully placing it atop his head for the first time in years. "You always liked this hat, didn't you Lady Holly?" he asks to no one in particular, taking a deep breath, picking up his spoon again and walking back down the hallway, "I hope what I'm about to do doesn't displease you…"

He glances skywards, again careful to avoid contact with the pictures on the walls, "No matter what, Lady Holly, we are still a family"

Knowing he's unable to postpone things any longer, he sighs reservedly and heads downstairs towards the kitchen, where a hastily scrubbed sticky patch on the carpet is all that remains of the syrup incident from earlier.

"Socks? Sparky?" Sir Higglesworth asks warily, opening the door to a haphazardly clean kitchen, where a few traces of syrup can still be found lurking in the hard to reach corners, and a huge mass of bubbles floats above the draining board next to the sink, where he hopes that there's some clean crockery underneath it all. "Where are you?"

"In here, Higgle!" Sparky's voice squeaks from the dining room, where both girls are now calmly drawing pictures at the table.

"O-oh, right" he hesitates, following Sparky's voice and walking into the adjacent dining room, "Good work on the cleaning, girls, I must say"

While he does feel that they could have done a slightly better job, it's clear to him that they put an honest effort into cleaning the room.

"Heyyy, you're wearing your hat!" Socks cries, looking up from the table and noticing the black top hat on his head, "Man, I haven't seen that in forever! Where'd you find it?!"

"In Lady Holly's drawers" Sir Higglesworth explains, without going into too much detail, "I just thought I would wear it to please her, like you girls have done with the cleaning"

"We didn't get all the syrup, I know…" Socks sighs, negotiating a yellow crayon between her two stubby hands in an attempt to draw with it, "But do you think Trainer'll be happy with it?"

"Ohh, very much so" Sir Higglesworth tries to enthuse her, "I'm sure she'll be delighted that you both took charge in her… absence"

Despite his best attempts, he finds himself trailing off, still not quite able to come to terms with what's happened. But both girls look away from their drawings for a moment to address the quiver they heard in his voice, and he's forced to act quickly, "S-so! What are you two drawing?"

"Just… some pictures" Socks explains, squinting and dragging her crayon across the paper again, "Reckon Trainer will like them?"

She pins the paper between her two paws and hands it to Sir Higglesworth so that he can see her work so far;

This picture depicts all four of them at once. While Socks has more talent than Sparky when it comes to drawing, mostly due to her being older, there's only so much an uncoordinated Furret with two stubby arms and a pile of crayons can do. Socks' drawings are less scribbly, pertaining to actual rounded shapes instead of Sparky's blocks, and the picture itself shows Holly sitting down in what looks like her favourite armchair with what looks like a sheet of paper or maybe a thin book, once again in her blue jeans and grey shirt. The blob on her chest is slightly more defined this time, as three red spheres with two green pointy shapes facing away from each other. Across her shoulders sits a much more shapely Socks, with visible limbs, ears and carefully matched blocks of yellow and brown for colour, with a huge smile that's shaped like a sideways three. Sir Higglesworth is shown snuggling up next to her in the armchair, with his spoon in hand, but no top hat this time. Once again, his moustache has been given a lot of effort, showing very prominently on his face. Both of Sir Higglesworth's arms appear to be stretching around Holly's waist – one behind her back – while his legs don't quite reach the edges of the armchair, and he rests his head on Holly's shoulder, smiling contentedly with his eyes half closed from comfort. The red star on his forehead has been drawn with some actual shape this time, instead of just a blob, and Socks has chosen the same colour palette as Sparky to draw him with, putting a little more detail into location. In the picture, Sparky is drawn lying on top of Holly's head with her arms folded and her head resting atop them, also staring at the book. Her awkward position has made it difficult for Socks to fit all the colours into such a small space, but she's tried her best, making an effort to distinguish the mostly black Sparky from the blackness of Holly's hair, with Sparky's obvious white face sticking out, and a few spots and stripes of yellow, and even an attempt at making Sparky's eyes look shiny, with tiny blobs of white visible amongst the black. Holly's eyes have taken on an 'n' shape to indicate her happiness, while her mouth appears to be open, as if she is reading the story to them all. Finally, as if to add her own personality to the picture, she's even tried to shade it, with heavier lines towards the lower left of each of them in accordance with the position of the lamp on the opposite side. The picture just seems to radiate an almost utopian sense of familial warmth.

"W-what do you think, Higgle?" Socks asks her friend, "I'm… not good at drawing, cause of these stupid little arms of mine, but I really like how this one turned out!"

"Oh, that is a wonderful drawing, Socks" Sir Higglesworth tries to encourage her lack of self-confidence, making his best attempt to disguise the lament that's currently showing on his face, "B-but I can't recall this moment, I'm afraid?"

"Recall?" Socks asks, confused, "More strange words…"

"He means remember, Socks" Sparky helps her out, "You know Higgle. He likes his long words, heh"

"Ohh, I see now!" Socks cries, realisation showing on her face as her eyes open wide, "You're such a silly, Higgle. Course you can't remember this picture!"

"I-I can't?" A bemused Sir Higglesworth asks, "Why not?"

"Because it hasn't happened yet!" Socks giggles, "Like, this is something I'd like us all to do together!"

"You'd like us all to… read?" Sir Higglesworth queries, not quite following.

"Well, I saw you trying to read Trainer's mail earlier…" Socks explains, rolling the crayon along the table between her paws to entertain herself, "So I thought that once we go see her, she can teach you how to read! That way you can become even smarter!"

"…oh" Sir Higglesworth mumbles, unable to keep up his calm façade any longer. His hands visibly start to shake once again, and he drops the sheet of paper back onto the table to save tearing it in half.

"Wouldn't that be awesome, Higgle?" Sparky asks, completely oblivious as always, but Socks notices that something's up, "Heyy, what's wrong, Higgle?"

"N-n-nothing!" He lies, convincing neither of them. Even Sparky can tell now, and his chances of bluffing his way out of it this time are dwindling fast.

"Yeah, c'mon Higgle. You've been weird all day" Sparky chips in, hopping down the staircase of books that have been placed on her chair so that she can reach the table, "Don't you wanna learn how to read human?"

"I-it's nothing like that…" Sir Higglesworth stammers, relenting to the pair of them staring him down, "It's… something else"

"And that something is?" Socks asks, toddling up to her friend and looking at him, her face marred with deep concern, "…you can tell us anything, y'know Higgle? Like, if you've eaten all of the poffins Trainer made for us last night without saying, we won't mind, but you've gotta tell us this sorta stuff!"

Sir Higglesworth glances at Socks for a moment, almost finding it funny how she can make jokes and be so serious at the same time – amidst a serious situation, nonetheless. However, in his heart he feels nothing but guilt. Guilt over what he's about to put her through. Having known Socks for a good four years, he knows just how fragile her emotions can be.

Given little choice, he concedes. "It is better to show than tell. Please, gather your drawings and follow me"

"What… the?" A half suspicious, half confused Socks mumbles, while Sparky cottons on, "Heyyy, are we gonna see Miss Holly now?!"

"…yes" Sir Higglesworth sighs, his head drooping.

"YAY!" Sparky cries. She hastily dashes back up her literary staircase, scoops up her drawings, and shoots past Sir Higglesworth, aiming for the stairs, "C'mon Socks! You gotta see this!"

Socks raises an eyebrow to the overexcited Sparky, and asks "Is it really that amazing?"

"You'll be surprised, that is for certain" Sir Higglesworth answers nervously, his legs feeling like lead weights as he creeps closer to the stairs.

"T-then why're you so… not you about this?" Socks queries, her concern rising, "If it's as awesome as Sparky says it is, then you'd normally be more excited than this?"

"You'll… see when you get there, Socks" A sombre Sir Higglesworth replies, dragging his unwilling limbs up the stairs, at the top of which sits an impatient Sparky, "C'mon, you guys take forever!"

"Higgle isn't feeling too good, Sparky" Socks explains, clumsily scrambling up one step at a time to avoid falling back down again, "So we're taking things slow, OK?"

"Ugh…" Sparky groans, "You pick _now_ to feel sick, Higgle?"

"I'm not sick, Sparky" Sir Higglesworth corrects her, "I just feel… guilty"

"Guilty?" Sparky asks, once again perplexed, "What've you done to be guilty for, Higgle? You're always taking care of us and stuff!"

Sir Higglesworth visibly balks, standing stone still in the stairway.

"Hey, what gives, Higg-" Socks asks, at first wondering why he's suddenly halted, right in front of her. But a short glance is all that takes for her to come to a conclusion.

"I…I don't like this" Socks mutters, her skin clamming up, "Higgle, you've gotta tell me what's wrong, OK?"

She hops up a stair to stand next to him, and rests her head on his shoulder, "We've been through everything together, man. Like, you were the one that taught me how to not be afraid of things back when I was just a wee Sentret. Whatever this is, I know it scares you, but we're here for you, no matter what. Got it?"

She wraps her soft, furry paw around Sir Higglesworth's hand, and says "Now let's get through this, together"

"…thank you, Socks" Sir Higglesworth manages to stammer, gripping her paw and finding the energy to climb the last few stairs, "For you to be teaching me my own lessons, it shows just how much you've grown over the years…"

"About time, guys!" Sparky yells, barging through the bathroom door and into the room itself, "Come see the awesomeness, Socks!"

"Umm, OK" Socks mumbles, holding onto her one drawing and tentatively passing through the doorway, "We'll be OK, won't we Higgle?"

"We are a family, Socks. No matter what happens" A pale Sir Higglesworth responds, "Oh, and one more thing?"

"…yeah?" Socks replies, doubling back on herself to address him once more.

Sir Higglesworth removes his hat, and holds it between his hands, his eyes gleaming,

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way, Socks"

"Find what out?" Socks mumbles in confusion, before stumbling a few more steps forward…

"Wah?!"

Shaking vigorously, her drawing falls out of her hands and flutters down to the ground, resting against the bathtub where her trainer hangs, unmoving. Her eyes start to dilate, tears begin to form, and for a moment all she can do is stare in horror, a juddering breath forcing its way from her mouth…

"See?" Sparky cries, unaware of Socks' rapidly rising panic, "Isn't it _amazing_, Socks?"

"Nooo, no no no!" Socks cries, dashing out of the room in hysterics, "Thaaaat's not flyiiiing!"

The bedroom door slams shut, leaving behind a guilt ridden Sir Higglesworth and a flummoxed Sparky.

"Oh dear…" Sir Higglesworth stammers, chasing after her, "Socks, wait!"

"W-what?!" Sparky cries, confused to tears, "M-Miss Holly's _not_ flying?!"


	4. Six Feet

**Chapter Four – Six Feet **

The bedroom door slowly squeaks open, and a remorseful Sir Higglesworth slowly creeps in, "…Socks? A-Are you OK, dear?"

Hesitantly, he looks around the room to try and find her, but to no avail. She's not lying on the bed, or the beanbag, or simply sprawled out across the floor like he'd first expected. He opens the wardrobe, and doesn't find her there either.

"Where are you, Socks?" he asks softly, knowing that he can't simply leave her in this state. Furret are easily spooked at the best of times, forget in a situation like this, so he knows that he has to do as much as he can to stop any more travesties from occurring.

"P-please, Socks…" he sniffs, falling to his knees and conceding to the inevitable; a single tear slips from his eye. It's quickly followed by another on the opposite side, and he soon finds himself unable to stem the flow, tears cascading down his face and dripping mercilessly onto the carpet.

However, he's not the only one currently upset.

From the depths of the beanbag, a gentle sniffing can be heard as a devastated Socks vents, far beyond consoling.

"S-socks?" Sir Higglesworth sputters, picking up on the soft noises from within the beanbag, "Are you there? P-please, come on out. Let's… talk about this, OK?"

"No! I'm not coming out!" Socks' sniffly voice shouts from within the beanbag, "I'm staying in here forever now! The world's a nasty place without Trainer!"

"Ohh, I know it is, Socks…" Sir Higglesworth soothes, staggering back to his feet and approaching the beanbag, "But you won't know the dangers from amidst that beanbag"

"I'm fine with that!" Socks cries defiantly, "What you don't know can't hurt you!"

"You know that that is a fallacy, Socks…" Sir Higglesworth sighs, kneeling down next to the beanbag.

"Argh, quit with the long words, dammit Higgle!" An irate Socks scowls, coiling herself even tighter from within the beanbag's depths. On top of everything else, the last thing she wants right now is for Higgle to make her feel stupid by using long words that she can't understand. All she wants currently is to curl up in a ball, and hope that she'll wake up from this horrible nightmare…

"T-the dangers still exist, whether you know about them or not" Sir Higglesworth stammers, placing his hand on where he estimates Socks to be, "You can't protect yourself from danger if you don't know about it. And it could come and gobble you up in the night…"

"That's alright with me!" Socks' muffled voice yells, adding some realism to what Sir Higglesworth intended as a metaphor, "That way I can _be with Trainer!_"

"Oh, that's it, Socks!" Sir Higglesworth yells, "Come out of there, now!"

"No!" Socks sniffles, grabbing onto the edges of the beanbag in an attempt to wrap it tighter still around herself. "It's nice in here! Out there's nasty!"

"You cannot stay in there forever, Socks!" Sir Higglesworth demands, struggling to unwrap the beanbag from around her with his limited strength, "Let's face those nasties together, OK?!"

"But why?!" Socks shouts, "There is no together without Trainer!"

"That is not true and you know it, Socks!" Sir Higglesworth retorts, finding her long tail amidst the folds and grabbing onto it, "You. Still. Have. Us!"

"NOO!" Socks argues, gripping onto the insides of the beanbag for all she's worth, "Not without Trainer!"

"What about 'being here for us, no matter what'?" Sir Higglesworth grunts, straining as he pulls on her tail, "We need each other now more than ever!"

"NOOOOOO!" Socks resists, actually feeling the beanbag move from beneath her due to Sir Higglesworth's sheer determination to remove her from it, "I'm not comin' out! Never ever ever!"

"Yes. You. Are!" Sir Higglesworth insists, giving one more almighty tug on her tail and successfully dislodging her!

"Arrrgh!" A livid Socks screeches, spinning around and raking Sir Higglesworth's face with a furious set of slashes, "I said I'm not comin' outta-"

But her boiling rage simmers away almost instantly when she takes a look at what she's just done.

His face covered with bright, glistening red scratches, and one eye closed from injury, her friend Sir Higglesworth simply stares at her, a horrible emotion showing through even his pained wincing; sorrow.

He made no attempt to counter her painful assail, and Socks realises that she went too far there.

"Ohh, I-I'm sorry, Higgle…" Socks mumbles, collapsing forwards onto his shoulder and sobbing, "I am so so so sorry…"

"It is alright, Socks…" Sir Higglesworth winces, stroking the back of her head with his palm, "If anything, I should be the one apologising to you, for putting you through this"

"Y-you couldn't hide it forever…" Socks sniffles, sparkling tears pouring down her face. "I-is your face OK?"

"…I will be fine, Socks" he soothes, hugging her tighter, "Don't you worry…"

But just then, a tearful Sparky bursts in the room.

"What the hell, Higgle?!" She cries, throwing her drawings to the floor, "H-how is that NOT flying?! Miss Holly's not touching the ground or anything!"

"Lady Holly has… fallen into the eternal sleep, Sparky" Sir Higglesworth says, using a euphemism to take away some of the pain, more for his own sake than hers. "T-that's why she isn't touching the ground. I'm sorry, Sparky"

"Eternal sleep?" Sparky shouts, her eyes widening further, "What's that mean?!"

"She has p-passed away" Sir Higglesworth stammers, trying a different euphemism.

"Passed away?!" Sparky cries, "But she's right there! How can she be away when she's there?!"

"Sparky…" Sir Higglesworth sighs, trying to think up yet _another_ euphemism, "Lady Holly is-"

"Dead" Socks deadpans, resting her head against Sir Higglesworth's shoulder, "T-that's all you needed to say, Higgle"

That word tears through Sir Higglesworth like a hot knife through butter. Tears begin to well up in his eyes once again, and he does little to stem the flow, hugging tighter into Socks, who's still sobbing madly.

"D-dead?!" Sparky cries, running up to the beanbag and throwing herself into it, her eyes awash with tears. "W-why didn't you tell me earlier, Higgle?! I thought it was awesome, a-and now-"

"To try and protect you, Sparky" Sir Higglesworth sniffs, staring blankly into the distance, "If you didn't know, then… then-"

"We'd still b-be a family?" Sparky splutters, looking up from the wet patch on the beanbag.

"Oh, w-we are still a family!" Sir Higglesworth insists, "And we'll always be a family no matter what, Sparky!"

"But now we're a broken one…" Socks sniffs, "And you know what happens to broken things. They get thrown away…"

All three pokémon say nothing for a while, faced with this very real prospect.

"Wh-what're we gonna do now, Higgle?" Sparky eventually asks, after what feels like an age.

Staring off into nothingness, a defeated Sir Higglesworth slowly mumbles,

"I… I don't know"

* * *

Accumula Town's conifer trees sway gently in the blustery spring breeze as three pokémon stand sorrowfully in their back garden. Rain threatens above, the iron-grey clouds floating across the sky like a menacing sheet of slowly descending madness, but these three pokémon heed it none, for their attentions are currently focused on the mound of tilled soil in front of them. The six feet of dirt, accompanied by a rounded headstone, symbolises their final memories of their beloved trainer, Holly.

Some attempt has been made to scratch a name into the stone, but the only legible shape on it is a very squiggly 'H'.

Six dirty feet surround the six feet of dirt, with the three owners of the six feet trying and failing to control their emotions.

"L-Lady Holly…" A devastated Sir Higglesworth stammers, holding his hat between his hands for a sense of formality, "I… I don't know why, but I am sure you had your reasons. I don't know how we'll survive without you, but I know that you'll be watching over us. G-guiding us f-from af-f-far…"

Sir Higglesworth crashes to his knees on the soft ground, falling to pieces at the foot of the grave, "I'm sorry I f-failed you, Lady Holly!"

Socks takes her turn next, bashfully toddling up towards the headstone and placing her drawing in front of it.

"You… taught me to never be afraid, Trainer…" She sniffs, her eyes gleaming with tears that are all but ready to drop, "Even at night time, when it's all dark and stuff, I knew not to be scared, 'cause you were there, keeping us safe"

She bows her head to try and wipe away tears with her tiny arms, and mumbles, "But n-now I'm afraid, because you were always so brave, Trainer. Whatever made you do this… it must be really scary"

Socks wobbles back over to Sir Higglesworth, and wraps her arms around his head as far as they'll reach, pulling it to her chest and hugging him tight. Tears sparkle in her eyes once more, and Sparky takes her turn.

"I-I finished my drawing, Miss Holly?" She squeaks, placing her three pieces of paper next to Socks', "I hope you like it…"

Her finished drawing from earlier shows Holly 'floating' once again, but this time Sparky has taken the time to add to it… a crude pair of wings.

"A-at first, I thought it was so cool, because I thought you were flying, so I gave you a pair of wings to help…" she sniffs, glancing skywards to avert her gaze. Staring off into the endless skies, she mumbles, "Well, you're flying now, huh?"

"D-do they have nice things in people heaven, Higgle…?" Socks mumbles as Sparky returns to them, collapsing into Sir Higglesworth's shoulder and hugging him tight.

"Yes, they have lovely things, Socks…" Sir Higglesworth sniffs, stretching his arms around both girls to pull them closer, "All of Lady Holly's favourite things will be there. Like knitting, and books, and pancakes… and she'll be able to watch over us whenever she wants to, a-and…"

"It's OK, Higgle…" Socks tries to comfort him, "As long as Trainer's happy now… right?"

"R-right…" Sir Higglesworth stifles, wiping his eyes and standing up again. With a gentle action, he throws his hat towards the grave, where it lands softly between Socks' and Sparky's drawings, "You always liked it when I wore this hat, Lady Holly. Perhaps it will help you to remember us?"

"I-I don't think she'll need any help, Higgle…" Socks soothes, patting him on the shoulder, "As long as we remember her, w-we'll be… f-f-fine…"

Socks collapses into Sir Higglesworth once again, her face streaming with tears, and the three slowly walk back inside. A light spattering of rain falls from the clouds above, almost as if it were cleansing the ground beneath it, and three pokémon watch from the doorway.

"L-look, even the skies are crying…" Sparky sniffs, "People heaven must know how special she is…"

A rumble of thunder rattles through the sky above, and three pokémon slowly walk back into their house. The back door closes with a soft click.

* * *

Two girls sit in their respective seats at the table, completely lost for words or even emotions, while a distraught Sir Higglesworth stands in the doorway between the kitchen and dining room, lost in thought.

Without their trainer to protect them, he literally has no idea what will happen to the three of them. As far as he's concerned, if they have any future at all, it will be full of uncertainty. Not knowing what the future beholds is a horrible prospect for any Kadabra, as they are pokémon that pride themselves on their ability to read the future, but Sir Higglesworth can't help but doubt himself. After all, he failed to predict what would happen to his beloved trainer…

With a small, inaudible gasp, his eyes dilate as he realises the potentially worst part of this whole ordeal; the three of them could be separated!

Feeling unable to face the girls like this, as the obvious concern would show on his face and worry them further, he retreats back into the kitchen itself. In an attempt to prevent suspicion, he opens the door to the pantry and busies himself looking through it.

"W-whatever happens… we must stay together!" he insists to himself, hoping that his voice is muffled behind the intentional rustling of food packages. However, his improvised searching has him uncovering something unexpected…

His hand brushes over the smooth yet sticky feel of plastic wrap, and this distracts him enough to glance at his discovery. Underneath the plastic wrap, he finds a simple china plate, stacked high with freshly made poffins!

"Ohh, Lady Holly…" Sir Higglesworth sniffs, detaching the post-it note that was stuck to the wrap, showing a hastily drawn picture of… him. Simply drawn in biro pen, yet still focusing heavily on his moustache, Sir Higglesworth studies the little drawing, believing that not only had their trainer shown the foresight to make them some food beforehand, but also the knowledge that _he_ would find this food. Her knowledge that pokémon couldn't read human has even shown through the simple drawing, indicating (in his mind) that this offering was not only a posthumous reminder of just how much their trainer cared, but also a way of saying sorry for turning their lives upside down.

"A-apology accepted, Lady Holly" he almost manages to chuckle, straining to lift up the plateful of poffins, "It would appear that you can read the future far better than I…"

Meanwhile, in the other room…

"H-hey, who's Higgle talking to?" Socks mumbles, her sharp ears picking up on his muffled voice from the other room.

"Probably himself, Socks…" Sparky sniffs, staring into the depths of the tablecloth, "C-cause there's no one else, remember?"

"Aww, don't be like that, Sparky" Socks stifles, blinking away her lament and shuffling over to comfort her friend, "M-maybe he's talking to her in the sky?"

Sparky just shrugs dejectedly, mumbling something unintelligible. Socks has half a mind to find out who Sir Higglesworth's talking to, but also doesn't want to leave Sparky on her own. However, a simple glance over towards the kitchen solves her problem. She finds her friend standing in the doorway, eyes sparkling with tears, holding onto a plate full of poffins?

"P-poffins, Higgle?" Socks mutters, both confused and dismayed at the sight in his hands, "How did you make them so quick?"

"I-I didn't…" Sir Higglesworth sobs, clumsily placing the heavy plate on the table, "Lady Holly… left them for us"

Socks' face visibly scrunches up at the notion, and she asks, "S-so that's why you were talking?"

Sir Higglesworth only manages a nod as his response, and shows the pair of them the post-it note with his picture on it.

"Ohh… you were always so smart, Trainer" Socks mumbles, barely holding her emotions.

"I-it shows that she still cared for us…" Sir Higglesworth splutters, collapsing into a chair and burying his face into his arms, "In spite of everything…"

And between a confused Socks, upset Sparky and overwhelmed Higgle, nothing is said for a few minutes.

"Umm… Higgle?" Socks eventually asks, choosing her words carefully, "W-what should we do now? We won't be able to stay here any longer, I know that much…"

"What… makes you say that, Socks?" Higgle asks, looking up from his arms.

"W-well…" Socks hesitates, "Trainer used to go into town sometimes and come back with food, didn't she?"

"…yes?" Higgle mutters slowly, both surprised at her insight, and slightly ashamed with himself for being unsure where she's going with this line of conversation.

"I-I think that's why Trainer made us these poffins, Higgle…" Socks mumbles, coming to a conclusion, "Because she knew that we wouldn't be able to go into town and get food like she did…"

"T-that would explain why it's such a large batch, yes" Sir Higglesworth agrees, noting that there are about twice as many poffins here as usual, "Good thinking, Socks…"

"But here's the problem, Higgle" Socks continues, "If we try, we can sorta cook food, but we can't _get_ food. So what're we gonna do when we run outta food?!"

That question has Sir Higglesworth dumbstruck. Try as he might, he can't help but admit that the usually placid and uncaring Socks has made an exceptionally brilliant point.

"…oh" Higgle stammers, not quite able to reach a conclusion in time, "I-I guess we shall have to cross that bridge as we come to it, OK Socks? If we ration the food, it should last longer, and I'll try to come up with something before then. Does that sound good?"

"I… I don't know…" Socks mumbles insecurely, "I can't help but feel like we're gonna be thrown away now, cause-"

"Calm down, dear…" Sir Higglesworth insists of her, peeling away the plastic wrap and handing her a poffin, "You are overthinking, Socks. I assure you, we'll be fine. I won't let anyone throw us away. We are a family, b-broken or not…"

Picking up a second poffin, he places this one in front of Sparky, who hasn't moved since sitting at the table, "Sparky dear? Eat up please. Lady Holly made these for us…"

"Not hungry" Sparky mutters stubbornly, drawing the energy she needs to turn her head away from the tasty looking poffin and ignoring it regardless of its allure.

As even the normally insatiable Socks is only picking unenthusiastically at the poffin, despite it being her favourite Pecha flavour, it doesn't take much guesswork from Higgle to deduce that the two girls are depressed.

"Please, Sparky…" he pleads, dismounting his chair and walking around the table to approach her, "G-going on a hunger strike won't do anyone any good…"

"Just how long were you planning on keeping Miss Holly's death a secret from us, Higgle?" Sparky sniffs, her face eroded into a scowl, "I thought it was _awesome _at first, and you let me believe that. Why did you lie?!"

"To try and protect you…" Higgle replies distantly, knowing that, despite his best intentions, his plans had backfired catastrophically, "There are just some things that shouldn't be seen, and that was one of them"

"But I _had_ seen already!" Sparky cries, accidentally discharging a few sparks of electricity from anger, "Wouldn't it have been better if you'd just told me the _truth_, there and then?!"

"Now now, Sparky…" Higgle attempts to calm her, "Slow down and think about this, OK?"

"That's all I've been doing since you told us, dammit Higgle! Thinking!" Sparky seethes, her fury showing in her hollowed out eyes, "You wanna tell me what I'm missing, smarty pants?!"

"If I had told you straight away…" Higgle sighs reservedly, "You would have argued about it, insisting that she _was_ flying, and when I continued to correct you, you would go and get Socks, to get her to agree with you. You saw what happened when Socks saw her…"

"Oh, so it's perfectly fine for me to see her floating there, dead as a Doduo, but not Socks?!" Sparky rages, "Why's she so special?!"

"Sparky!" Socks cries, appalled at Sparky's attitude, "Stop being so nasty to us! Higgle was just trying to help, OK?! Now that Trainer's g-gone, he's gonna be helping us a… a lot more! S-so you just shut up for once and let him help… OK?!"

Socks' unexpected outburst stuns the both of them into silence. Without another word, she drops the remains of her poffin onto the table and bounds from it with tears streaming from her eyes, dashing off into another room.

"…_that_ is why I tried to hide the fact from Socks, Sparky" Higgle sighs after about a minute, "I was fortunate that you didn't realise just what had happened. We both know how timid Socks can be, don't we…?"

"…I was being dumb there, w-wasn't I?" Sparky mumbles, eyes sparkling with guilty tears, "S-Socks has already had a horrible day, and then I go and make it worse c-cause I dunno how to shut up!"

"No no, don't you berate yourself any further, Sparky" Higgle tries his best to comfort the tiny Sparky, pulling her into his arms and hugging her, "You were right. I should have told you straight away. In the situation we are in currently, it would have made no difference…"

"I'm… sorry I yelled at you, Higgle" Sparky mumbles into his shoulder, "I mean, you're trying your best to keep us together…"

"Don't apologise, Sparky" Higgle instructs, placing her back on her chair as carefully as he could, "If anything, it's Socks we need to apologise to. She needs cheering up right now…"

"…OK" Sparky agrees, albeit with some reluctance, "Once we find her, m-maybe we could all sit in the beanbag together, eat poffins and watch TV? Socks likes the cartoons on TV?"

"That sounds like a wonderful idea, Sparky" Higgle manages a smile. Picking up two fresh poffins – one for himself and one for Socks – he adds, "And I have an idea where she might be. Come, let's go and be a family"

Sparky nods, and grabs her poffin before dismounting her seat with a clumsy jump to the floor, and chases after Higgle. Simply following his instinct rather than checking each room first, the pair climbs the stairs. They find Socks curled up in a ball, sat on the floor of the now mercifully empty bathroom, staring at the point where Holly was found and holding onto her tail for comfort. A gentle sniffing indicates that she's still upset, however…

"G-go away…" she chokes, hearing the pair enter and swivelling away from their line of sight, "I don't wanna talk right now"

"But we can't leave you like this, Socks…" Higgle says, trying his best to soothe her, "We all know you don't like it when you are alone"

"…is it gonna be like this every day?" Socks sniffles after a while, giving into their stubbornness, yet still refusing to look at the pair of them, "All of us getting mad at each other over nothing? I mean, I scratched the hell out of your face earlier, and I yelled at Sparky just because I was mad at the world for taking Trainer away! Is this our lives now?!"

"O-of course not, Socks" Higgle soothes, daring to reach forward and place a hand on her short, silky fur, "Things will get better, I just know it"

"When, Higgle? When?!" Socks stifles, flinching at his touch.

"In good time, I promise" Higgle tries his best to reassure his friend, while all Sparky can do is stand in the doorway and nod, "P… perhaps you would like to join us in the beanbag? We can eat our poffins in there, and I shall see if I can find some cartoons on TV?"

Socks' head slowly tilts back upwards, as if she's addressing the notion directly. "…that does sound nice. A lot better than this floor anyway…"

Slowly, the little Furret uncoils herself and wobbles back to her feet, finally showing her tear-stained face to her two friends again. "I-I'm sorry you guys. I shouldn't get all mad like that…"

"Noooo, no no no, it was my fault Socks!" Sparky owns up, joining in on the conversation now that she finally has something to offer, "It was me being stupid and not thinking about what I was saying. You were just sticking up for Higgle 'cause I was being nasty to him…

"B-but I-" Socks attempts to retort, but Higgle interjects, "Girls, please, desist! It is no one's fault, OK?"

He pushes Socks' poffin into her hands while opportunity strikes, and says "Let us agree on that at least…"

"…OK" both girls reply in unison, before glancing at the other bashfully. Higgle walks off towards the bedroom and beckons them both to follow, when Socks can't help but ask "W-what's desist mean?"

"Stop" Sparky replies, following Higgle through the door.

"Ohh, b-but…" Socks mumbles, perceiving Sparky's answer completely wrong, "I-I know Higgle wants us to stop arguing, but what's desist mean? You know I don't like those kinda words…"

"It means 'stop', Socks" Higgle almost chuckles, ruffling her head fur, "Sparky wasn't telling you to stop, she was answering your question, dear…"

"…oh" Socks mutters, once again feeling dumb, "S-sorry"

"No need to apologise, Socks" Higgle answers her, guiding the ditzy Furret towards the beanbag. "You girls take a seat, OK? I shall see if I can get the television working"

"N-no scary movies, please Higgle" Socks feels the need to request, "I-I don't like scary movies…"

"Ohh, of course not" Higgle's muffled voice replies from behind the cabinet, upon which rests the TV; an ancient model that looks older than any of the pokémon in the room. A light spattering of rain against the windows, combined with the slowly darkening sky, has limited visibility exacerbating things for the wise Kadabra, but as far as he can deduce…

"All of the wires and power connectors appear to be in the right places…" he muses, raising a hand to his chin, "And all of the appropriate switches are in the right position. So why are you not working, television?"

"Have you tried hitting it, Higgle?" Sparky suggests, slowly picking away at her poffin, "That always worked with me?"

"I don't think that will work this time, Sparky…" Higgle sighs, giving up and squishing into the beanbag with the two girls, "It doesn't seem to be receiving power, and we therefore cannot operate it"

"Aww, that sucks" Sparky sighs, "M-maybe we should just eat these and get to sleep, then?"

"It has been a long day…" Higgle agrees, glancing over to the evening sky outside, where the gap in the curtains is the only source of light in the room, and even that's minimal, "I'm sorry, Socks. Will you be OK getting to sleep?"

"U-uhmm…" she shivers, seemingly petrified of something, "It's… kinda dark. Dark is scary…"

Higgle and Sparky exchange a nervous glance in the dwindling light. It seems as though Socks' fear of the dark has resurfaced with the loss of Holly.

"Hang on, I've got an idea…" Sparky mutters, closing her eyes and concentrating. Her face mars into a frown as she concentrates, but the tiny Emolga slowly begins to glow with a soft static charge, lighting the room up just enough for the trio to see.

"Wow… thanks, Sparky" Socks whispers, snuggling up to her friend gratefully, "A-and you too, Higgle. You guys have been really nice to me today…"

Higgle opens his mouth to respond earnestly, but Socks forestalls him with "No, really! You guys have, like, tried your best to stop me from getting sad today! I really really mean it guys. Thanks…"

Higgle's face slowly melts into an exasperated but relieved smile, and mumbles, "That's what family is for, Socks"

But his response falls on deaf ears, as Socks has already fallen asleep, with her poffin under one arm and Sparky the 'nightlight' under the other.

"And they say a chipped vase is worthless…" he smiles, shuffling alongside the pair and wrapping his arms around them before slowly drifting off. He doesn't know what the future beholds, but he does know that, whatever happens, he has to do everything he can to save his 'broken' family.

**Author's note: Whew!**

**This one took a while to write!**

**I hope it pleases readers, and answers any questions you may have about Sparky's reactions, etc. This chapter fleshes out Socks' personality a bit more, seeing as she's been the more neglected of the three main characters thus far, and for once, I haven't ended on some form of cliffhanger. Please read and review if you can spare a few minutes? :3**

**Oh, and one small challenge; if someone can unravel the meaning behind that last little paragraph, they win THREE internets. :D **


	5. Broken Home

**Chapter Five – Broken Home**

A drowsy Sir Higglesworth is the first to awaken in the household today. That fact alone surprises him, because it's usually Sparky who wakes up first, being the most energetic of the three. But he blinks a few times, and into his blurry vision, the saddening sight of his two sleeping friends floats, once again reinforcing the awful truth. Socks is no longer holding onto Sparky, whose light had evidently worn off overnight.

While the two are currently blissfully lost in their dreams, Higgle knows all too well that they have to wake up sooner or later, which means embracing a harsh reality without their trainer.

Higgle slides his arm out from underneath the two girls as carefully as he can, to avoid waking them, so that they can sleep a little longer.

"They must be exhausted…" he whispers to himself, "For even Sparky is still asleep. She must have drained her energy by creating that nightlight for Socks last night"

Mindful of the squeaky floorboard, a still half-asleep Higgle creeps out of the room to give the girls some peace. After all, the longer they're asleep, the better, as far as he's concerned. That way they can at least dream, rather than wake up into a nightmare.

Slowly making his way down the stairs, and avoiding eye contact with the row of pictures on the wall, he ponders their next movements. He knows they can't hold up forever in this house, because, as Socks so bluntly stated yesterday, their food will only last them a short while.

"Reverting back to being wild pokémon certainly will not do…" he muses, assuming his usual position at the table and engaging in some deep thought, "I-I don't even know if I _can_ be wild any more. Stealing food from people is also out of the question, as that will make people angry…"

Scooping up two poffins from the dwindling supply, he places them onto a plate from the kitchen with the aim of taking them upstairs to the girls, so that they will have something nice to wake up to.

"I… suppose we could still live here, as domestic pokémon, but go out and forage for berries and such?" He suggests inwardly, carefully carrying the plate up the stairs towards the bedroom. Given his alternatives, he decides that that's their best available option.

"There should be myriads of berry trees growing in the immediate area" he thinks to himself, softly placing the plate on the carpet in front of the girls, in a place where they should see it easily.

"No noo…" Socks mumbles in her sleep, flailing her little arms wildly as Higgle makes his exit from the room, "Don't go, Trainer. I need-"

The rest of her sentence dissolves into intangible mumbling, but it doesn't take much for Higgle to figure out what the poor Furret's dreaming about.

"Oh dear…" he sighs, blinking back his lament and vacating the room before his emotions can be provoked any further. On one hand, he's somewhat happy that she's dreaming about their dear trainer, as that means she's got somewhere happy to turn to, rather than just an endless nightmare, but it also means that she'll be twice as depressed when she wakes up.

"I-I suppose it is better than having bad dreams, though…" he insists to himself, "If that were the case, they would have nowhere to run…"

Grabbing a poffin for himself from the stash, he slowly walks towards the front door and unlocks it, with the intentions of surveying the area. The viability of his 'plan' depends on how many berry trees are growing in the surrounding area, and how easy it would be to pick their fruit.

But his spirits begin to plunge as he looks around. Accumula Town may be a picturesque little town, but the forestry that surrounds it does not bear fruit of any sort. Even Socks wouldn't enjoy pinecones for breakfast…

"S-so much for plan C" he sighs, taking a bite out of his poffin and crashing to the floor, retiring to sitting on the roadside kerb outside the house. A sense of futility creeps up on him like the shadows of night time, and Higgle buries his head in his arms, not having felt this helpless since he was a young Abra, who knew only how to run away from danger…

"M-maybe it's time to run away again…" he mumbles to himself, "If I take Socks and Sparky with me, perhaps we could escape to somewhere new and… a-and…"

But that ounce of inspiration falls away as soon as it appeared, as if it were sand slipping through his fingertips. Running away would create more problems than it solved, because they at least know where they are if they stay here. Getting lost in the wilderness of somewhere else would just make things harder…

"Hello there!" A cheerful voice chimes in the distance, shocking Higgle out of his thoughts. The lamenting Kadabra looks up from his arms, and finds a small, tan and pink pokémon engaging his company. With bell shaped ears and shiny blue eyes, Higgle recognises this pokémon as the Audino from across the street. He has seen her on occasion, but the two have never actually spoken before. Mostly due to this being one of the first times Higgle has actually come outside…

"Is something troubling you, dear?" Audino squeaks as she sits seat next to him, her eyes wracked with concern, "You look as though you have the weight of the world on your shoulders right now…"

"You… could say that" Higgle eventually stammers, conceding to this Audino's concerns. His eyes welling up, he begins to explain his situation.

"W-we…" he mumbles, the thought of reliving yesterday's horrors already making him feel nauseous, "We… lost our trainer, yesterday"

"Oh dear…" the instantly distraught Audino gulps, raising her hands to her mouth, "H-how-"

"L-Lady Holly, she was so… wonderful" Higgle sniffs, interrupting because he doesn't particularly want to explain every gory detail to a relative stranger, "But now that she's gone, I-I don't know what to do…"

"Aww, you poor thing…" Audino mumbles through her hands, "Is there… anything I can do to help?"

"I… I don't think so" Higgle says, gathering himself and trying to stand up again, "But I thank you for your kindness. It was nice, to hear such kind words after yesterday. I just need to figure out how to address a few problems, that's all…"

"Problems?" Audino asks, glancing up to him, "What's wrong?"

"Well…" Higgle hesitates, apprehensive at the combined notion of discussing intimate matters with a stranger and not knowing something, "You… know how humans acquire food, correct?"

"Yes, I do?" Audino squeaks, "That's called 'shopping'. Humans travel to this place called the 'Market'" she continues, gently pointing over to a small collection of buildings in the distance, "And they trade these shiny circles for food. I-it sometimes looks like paper too, but it must be really nice, because it's worth food!"

"O-oh, I see…" Higgle nods, glancing over to the indicated location, "B-but… that only brings up more problems. We have no means of acquiring these shiny circles you speak of, which means we can't trade them for food. And if we can't obtain any food, I-I..."

Audino just nods quietly, absorbing Higgle's situation. Being natural born helpers, Audino don't like to see other pokémon suffering, she wracks her brain for a way to help this poor, sad Kadabra find a way out of his dilemma. She looks down, and the answer strikes her like a slap to the face, "oh!"

"W-wait here a second!" she cries, dashing off towards the tall grass in the distance. A flummoxed Higgle just stands there, as confused as ever, while Audino twitches her ears, and waves her arms slowly left to right, as if dancing the hula.

Higgle watches, stunned, as the tall grass in front of her starts to shake in rhythm with her dancing, and just moments later, another Audino pops out of it!

The two begin to converse inaudibly, and the second Audino hands something to the first, before disappearing back into the grass again. She slowly meanders back towards the still confused Higgle, and proffers to him the small, blue item in her hand, "Here, take this!"

Higgle's hand shakily extends to retrieve the item from her, and he asks, "Is this… a berry?"

"Ayup!" Audino chimes, now elated at the thought of having helped him, "It's also a food! If you plant it in the ground and be nice to it, feed it lots of water, it'll grow into more food!"

"R-really?!" Higgle gasps, shocked, "Oh, wow! Thank you so much, Miss Audino!"

"Ohh please, call me Camellia!" Audino smiles, waving gently, "My owner gave me that name. She says it's because I'm quiet. Isn't it a pretty name?"

"Ohh, very much so!" Higgle agrees, managing a grateful smile, "W-well, I thank you, lady Camellia!"

"You're welcome!" Camellia the Audino giggles, "Now you go grow some food, OK?"

"Will do!" Higgle says, and dashes back inside, heading towards the back garden. However, something side-tracks him on his way there.

Sliding to a halt on the lino floor of the kitchen, he spies an obviously upset Sparky burying her face in the table.

"Oh dear…" he mumbles, postponing the plan of planting the berry so that he can console her. "Sparky dear, a-are you OK?" he asks, slowly walking up to her and hoping that he doesn't scare her with his sudden outburst.

"Not… really" she sniffs, not even looking up from the table, "I had a nasty dream about Miss Holly…"

"Ohh…" Higgle hesitates, not surprised in the slightest, but still sympathetic for his friend nonetheless, "But I thought… dreaming about Lady Holly would make you happy?"

"I-It kinda was, at first…" Socks mumbles, slowly raising her head upwards, revealing red puffy cheeks from a lot of crying, "I mean, we were both riding on those things that humans swing on, and you and Socks were there, too. You were helping Socks build a sandcastle, which was nice, because hers weren't coming out very good…"

"That… does sound rather accurate, I must say" Higgle smiles weakly, placing a comforting hand on her back. "H-how did it turn bad, if I may ask?"

"Uhh…" Sparky shudders, cringing at the thought of having to remember it all again, "I-it was horrible…"

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, Sparky" Higgle advises, not wanting to force it out of her.

"…yeah I do" Socks insists with a sniff, "Otherwise it'll be stuck in the back of my mind forever and haunt me, and I don't want that!"

"OK OK!" Higgle exclaims, placing the berry down on the table and holding Sparky with both hands to try and calm her down, "It's OK Sparky, it's OK. Just… take things slowly, OK?"

"…OK" Sparky vents, her head drooping again, "Well, umm… something happened, and I got knocked off the swingy thing. I got a mouthful of sand from it, and it tasted horrible, but when I looked up again, it was all dark, and you guys were gone!"

"Us guys?" Higgle asks, "A-all of us?"

"No, not all of you…" Sparky gulps, tears forming in her eyes again, "Miss Holly was still there. B-but the ropes of the swingy thing had… tightened around her, and I was forced to watch it all again! I tried to help her, but I couldn't move, and all I could do was watch! I-I couldn't do ANYTHING!"

With this outburst, Sparky lets out another tortured sob, and tears stream from her face like a burst tap.

"Oh, gosh!" Higgle gasps, bringing the tiny Emolga to his chest and hugging her tight, "Oh, you poor thing, Sparky. That must have been dreadful!"

"Mhmm!" Sparky snorts through her choked sinuses, "I-wa… don-wan… ever!"

Higgle carefully sits down at the table with Sparky in his arms, "It's OK dear. Just let it _all _out…"

Sparky continues to sob hysterically into his chest, and all this Kadabra can do is stare into nothingness. Insistent that he _will not_ join Sparky with her crying, his eyes begin to water at the very thought of what he's trying to prevent. Although he's trying his best to keep things together in his trainer's stead, he knows that, if things remain like this for too long, there will be too many pieces to hold together. And when that happens, it will only be a matter of time before everything falls apart, taking them with it…

And that thought defeats Higgle's spirits. His resilience floats away from him, and his vibrant emotions force their way out of their host. With an embattled gasp, Higgle tilts his head forwards, and can do nothing to stem the flow of tears cascading down his face. He cuddles into the still sniffly Emolga, who almost stops out of complete surprise.

'Higgle _never_ cries…' she thinks to herself, blinking away the last of her tears and looking up at him. "H-hey, are you OK Hig-gle?" she chokes, raising an arm to his chin to grab his attention.

"…S-sorry, Sparky" Higgle slowly mumbles, the occasional tear still dripping from his eyes, "I-I suppose I just got caught up in the emotions…"

"It's alright Higgle, don't worry" Sparky tries her best to reassure him, "Strong people can cry too"

Higgle manages a weak smile at Sparky's adorable compliment, and mumbles, "Well, whatever happens, I'm sure we can all get through this together. Is Socks… still asleep?"

"…yup" Sparky nods slowly, "I think she was having bad dreams too, because she kept mumbling 'Trainer' in her sleep"

"Hmm…" Higgle muses, beginning to reconsider his original thought, and realising that maybe sleeping is worse than the nightmare of being awake. "Did you find the poffins I left you both?"

"I-I did, yeah…" Sparky says, "But I'm not really hungry. Socks can have mine, I don't mind"

"I do, Sparky…" Higgle responds, trying to sound stern but not doing very well, "You can't not eat, OK? It isn't good for you"

"I know Higgle, don't worry…" Sparky mumbles, "I'll eat later, I promise. It's just… that dream. It made me feel sick…"

"Well, at least it's out of your system now, right?" Higgle tries to enthuse. His memories spurred by the thought of food, things snap back to the berry, lying innocently on the table. "Oh, right!"

Standing up carefully again, he places Sparky on the ground, and picks up the berry, "Come with me, Sparky! I think I may have solved one of our problems!"

"Y-you have?" Sparky queries, momentarily bemused. "H-how?!"

"The kindly Audino from across the street gave us this berry" Higgle explains, pushing the squeaky back door open and slowly walking out into the back garden. Holly's grave is clearly visible, freshly tilled dirt among green grass, and both of them stop for a moment to stare at it. Higgle begins to shake at the memory, his gaze fixed on that simple mound of dirt. But thankfully, with an immense amount of effort, he pulls himself out of the darkness just in time.

"A-anyway!" he stammers, averting his eyesight and forcing his joints forwards again, "The Audino told me that if we are to plant this berry, and give it plenty of water, we can grow more berries! Then we can plant some of those, and grow more, and we will have lots of food!"

"O-oh, that's great news, Higgle!" Sparky cries, making sure to look _away_ from the grave, "Any idea how long it'll take?"

"I-I'm not sure" Higgle mutters, "Perhaps we should ask afterwards…"

Kneeling down, he parts the soft, mushy soil with his hands, carefully places the berry in the ground and covers it again. "Now we just need to make sure to water it regularly" he advises Sparky on their way back to the house, "It looks like it will rain again today, so it should be fine until tomorrow at least"

The pair trek back through the building, and Higgle suggests, "Perhaps we should talk to Audino? She can teach us more about the berry"

"It… shouldn't be too hard, should it?" Sparky asks, bemused, "I mean, it's only watering a berry…"

"Yes, but we don't know how long it will take for the berry to mature, do we?" Higgle reminds her as they both exit through the front door once again, "So we can ask h-"

However, Higgle looks around, and finds the immediate area… empty?

"Huh?" he mutters, confused, "W-where has she gone?"

"Maybe she went back to her… owner…" Sparky starts, her voice trailing off on the mention of 'owner', due to it dredging up unpleasant memories. "…how long's it gonna take for it to stop hurting, Higgle?" She asks, blinking rapidly to try and suppress escaping emotions once again.

"I… don't know, Sparky" says a sombre Higgle, still looking around intently for Camellia the Audino, "Once your mind can accept it, the pain will start to lessen, and then you can work towards finding – oh, there you are!"

Higgle tentatively approaches Camellia again, having found her quivering behind a patch of tall grass. Her demure features are stricken with what Higgle can only assume is fear, for she stares unblinkingly into the distance.

"I-is something wrong, Camellia?"

"Y-you need to hide!" She squeaks, her entire body shivering with fright, "Quick!"

"Why? What's wrong?!"

"Scary noises…" Camellia mumbles, before crouching down even further in the long grass, "Quick, get behind something!"

"O…OK!" Higgle stammers, "Sparky, get over here, quick!"

"What's wrong, Higgle?" Sparky asks in confusion, just as an ominous rumbling has the ground shaking violently, "Huh?! What the?!"

Sparky staggers over to Higgle across the shaking ground, and he picks her up, then the pair dive behind a pile of logs just in time for enormous metallic objects to come rumbling into town…

Taking up almost the entirety of Accumula's narrow, country roads, these mechanical beasts roll past the three pokémon on their enormous wheels, coming to a heavy stop with an almost guttural sounding roar.

"Oh no…!" Camellia squeaks in fear as a human clambers out of the enormous contraction, with a scrap of paper clutched in his hand.

"Wh-what is it?!" Higgle whispers over to her, watching petrified as the man, garbed in a light blue jumpsuit, surveys the row of houses behind them.

"It's the 'takers'" Audino quivers, her shiny blue eyes almost opaque from a combination of terror and nerves, "M-my friend Heather from Striaton City told me that they turn up at people's houses, and… take things…"

"What right have they to do that?!" Higgle gasps, while Sparky struggles to get his attention, "H-Higgle, look!"

With some force, Sparky points the Kadabra's head in the right direction, and his jaw drops as he sees what house the strange men are entering; _theirs…_

"WHAT?!" Higgle roars, bursting up from behind the logs, his face twisted with fury, "H-how dare they! I am going to-"

Higgle moves to charge off towards the house, but Camellia jumps up from behind her grassy patch, and grabs onto him, "Noooo, no no no! Stay here, please! These are bad people! They might take you too!"

"I don't care!" Higgle insists, "Those are our possessions, our home! They can't take our things!"

"Higgle, calm down!" Sparky tries to insist, raising her arms up and waving them in front of him, "We're OK as long as we've got each other, OK?! So what if they take a couple of things! We're still a family, right?"

Higgle's chest rises and falls heavily, for he is still fuming. But a look into Sparky's eyes has her reasoning reaching through to him, and he slowly concedes.

"…alright. I-I suppose so…"

The three pokémon watch as things of all description are carried from the house by the strange men; the couch, the old TV, the table…

"W-why do they do this?!" Higgle growls, glaring at them.

"You remember those shiny circles I told you about earlier?" Camellia mumbles as they walk right past her, carrying a dresser table, "Well, you can trade things for those shiny circles. Which means they can get lots of food…"

"By the looks of it, they don't need any more feeding…" Sparky mutters, staring angrily at the rotund bulk of one of the men in question, "He looks like he's had enough food for all of them"

"Now now, Sparky…" Higgle scolds her gently, in spite of finding what she said funny, "They may be taking our possessions, but that is no reason to insul-"

However, another sharp voice grabs his attention;

"Hey! No! Lemme _goooo!_"

"SOCKS?!" Both Higgle and Sparky yell at once. Just as they speak, two men struggle to pull Socks from the building, who wrestles with all her might to free herself, "Let go of me, you nasty yucky humans! I don't like this! Arrrrghhhhh! Traineerrrrr!"

"NO!" Higgle shouts, and Camellia has to physically hold him back to stop him charging after her, "B-but you'll be taken too!"

"I have to!" Higgle roars, "We are a family! And family sticks together!"

Two burly men finally succeed in throwing a resilient Socks painfully into the back of their truck, when one of them is literally knocked sideways by a surprise assailant!

"Release her at once, human!" Higgle demands, in spite of their inability to understand him. He raises his spoon defensively, while Sparky does the best she can to help, charging into another one with an electrified tackle!

"Yaah!" the man gasps, flinching upon Sparky's contact, "Hey, we've got hostiles here!"

On his word, two more men appear from nowhere to assist, and Higgle soon finds himself forcefully extracted from the man he had just attacked, and thrown into the van with a painful _clang_, followed shortly by a livid Sparky.

"Hey, get back here and face me like a pokémon!" She screeches, shaking her tiny fists at the closing door, "I was just gettin' warmed up!"

"…Sparky" Higgle mutters, a trickle of blood journeying down his face. "Calm down, dear. It's OK. We're all here, so it's O-"

"Silence!" another voice orders, hushing the pair of them instantly. Both Sparky and Higgle turn to their left and find another pokémon staring them down. With its overlarge eyes exhibiting an evil, almost hypnotic stare, and its two prominent front teeth looking more than sharp enough to cause grievous injury, this bizarre brown and tan striped pokémon has the two of them under its intimidating spell. It kicks a barely conscious Socks towards them, and says "Take your friend, sit down, and shut up. UNDERSTAND?!"

Higgle nods quietly, and carefully drags the limp Socks away from this strange pokémon, towards the back corner of the truck. Their possessions rattle about as its engine kicks into life, and the family of three is once again thrown into disarray, now having lost their home as well...

"I-I…" Socks mumbles softly, wincing because of a brutal looking forehead bruise, "I messed up again, didn't I Higgle…?"

"Noo…" Higgle reassures the young Furret, holding her in his arms, "Not at all, Socks. You did the right-"

"I SAID SHUT IT!" the other pokémon commands, subjecting the three to another horrifying stare.

Lost, dazed and confused, three pokémon huddle together in the back of a truck, their once peaceful lives, truly…

Shattered.

* * *

**Author's note:**

**Well, I hope you like this update, guys. Hopefully this plot twist surprised a few of you?**

**I'm also interested to know what you think will happen in the coming story. Please tell me your thoughts? Where do you want this story to go?**

**I hope you can tell what the pokémon in the back of the truck is. I think I gave a fairly decent description. As for the cameo of Camellia the Audino… I just love Audino. Who doesn't? :3**

**As always, I'd love to hear feedback of any sort. Thanks for reading.**


	6. A Pier Too Far

**Chapter Six – A Pier Too Far**

A rusty metal door slides open with an ominous creak, and three pokémon are thrown inside, with scant regard for their safety.

"Waaaiit!" Sparky gasps, springing to her feet faster than the other two and charging back towards the door, but it is forced shut and locked before she can reach it, and her cries are left unheeded.

"B-but… why?" Sparky mumbles sadly, her arms drooping as she toddles back to the other two. Higgle is still nursing a cut on his head, while Socks is in a far worse state, with the horrible bruise on her forehead seriously impacting her consciousness. Barely able to even move from a combination of pain and drowsiness, she simply rests her head on Higgle's leg.

"I… don't like it here, Higgle," she whispers, blinking slowly, "I-It's cold, and dark, and-"

"Calm down, Socks, calm down…" Higgle tries his best to soothe her worries, "I know this is far from ideal, but for now we will have to make the best of it…"

"Best of it?!" Sparky cries, throwing her little arms out for dramatic purposes, "How're we gonna do that, Higgle?! We don't know why we're here, or even where here is! We don't even have a TV! And another thing,-"

"I know, Sparky…" Higgle groans, resting his head in his spare hand while holding onto one of Socks' paws with the other, "But getting angry will not help anyone, will it?"

"It MIGHT!" Sparky roars, accidentally discharging a small spark of electricity due to her anger, "If we make enough noise, those nasty humans'll come in again to try and shut us up, and then we can escape!"

"No Sparky, list-" Higgle tries to insist, but his plea falls on deaf ears. Not one to be discouraged from a plan, Sparky is already making as much noise as she can, screaming high pitched, painful squeaks, and rattling the rusty bars to try and get some attention from someone, anyone!

"Sparky!" Higgle yells, trying to grab her attention, but she doesn't hear it for how loud she's being. Socks winces at the sheer volume, mostly due to her head already being sore from her bruise. However, due to the state she's in, she has no choice but to sit there and suffer. Higgle notices her discomfort, and places his hands on her ears to help muffle the sound. Sparky's still obstinately making noise by any means necessary.

"HELLO?! ANYONE THERE?!" She screeches, making sure that her voice is as annoying as possible.

"Higgle… please?" Socks mumbles up to him, and that soft, almost pathetic plea is the last straw for him. A boiling, almost primal rage seethes from within, and he hollers "SPARKY!" as loudly as he can, stunning her out of her uproar almost instantly. He regrets that it hurt Socks' sore head even more, but it got Sparky to stop. He considers this a positive result, given the situation.

"The hell, Higgle?!" Sparky protests, rounding on him, "How're we gonna get outta here if we don't do anything, huh?!"

"Sparky, look!" Higgle growls, gesturing to the exhausted Socks. Sparky's rage dissolves almost immediately when she finally realises the gravity of what she's been doing.

"Sparky…" Socks mumbles, barely keeping her eyes open from pain, "Can you be a little quieter, please? I-I don't like loud things right now, because they make my head hurt more…"

"Oh gosh, Socks!" Sparky gasps, falling to her knees and hugging her friend, "I'm soooo, so so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you or anything, I-I-"

"Sparky" Higgle mutters, his voice pushing instruction upon her again, "Do you see why we can't try to escape right now?"

Sparky just nods solemnly, regretful to the point of tears because of what she was doing to Socks, "…yup."

"Even if we _could_ escape, Socks is in no condition to do that. We have to _think_ about this, Sparky. Do you understand?"

"…OK," Sparky mumbles self-reproachfully, standing up and shuffling away from the pair with her shoulders hunched, making a stubborn effort to stare at the far corner of their 'room', which consists of literally just an overlarge bed and a patronising litter tray. Bars for walls, and a tiny window as their only source of light, Sparky looks around the dirty prison cell with a combination of disgust and defeatism; in her mind, escape is all but impossible…

"Wh-what're we gonna do, Higgle?" she eventually asks, furiously wiping away tears as she stares dejectedly at the far corner, insisting on becoming interested in the rust on the bars.

"Right now… we just need to help Socks" Higgle answers her softly, "There should be a pillow or cushion of some description on the bed behind us, Sparky. Could you retrieve it for me please?"

"S-sure," Sparky mutters, tearing her eyes away from her rusty bar 'friend' and approaching the bed behind Socks and Higgle. She has to physically climb atop it to retrieve the pillow, which is nearly the same size as her, but there is no distance too far for her friend. However, it takes her until now to notice…

"WHOA!" Sparky gasps, literally falling off of the bed from shock, with the pillow conveniently cushioning her fall, "What the?!"

"Sparky!" Higgle snaps at her loud voice, "Quiet down a little, please!"

"B-but!" Sparky cries, her breath short and ragged from surprise, "There's a-"

"Ohh, sorry there!" another voice calls from the adjacent cell, "Didn't mean to scare ya, eh?!"

Higgle looks around defensively to confront the new face, and finds its owner. "F-f-friend or foe?!" he asks, inwardly berating himself for being unable to hide that quiver of fear in his voice.

"Noo need to be afraid o' me, buddy!" the voice replies, and its owner slowly waddles closer towards them on its soft, padded feet. Seemingly unsteady in its step, a new pokémon introduces itself to the three, "Hey there. Call me Rufus!"

Standing at roughly a metre in height, on the other side of the bars is a pokémon that's an oaky brown in colour. With its glossy, water repellent pelt, overlarge front teeth and vacant facial expression, Rufus is identified as a Bibarel. Once again, Higgle secretly reprimands himself for not knowing of Rufus the Bibarel's presence, but being a strict follower of rules and courtesy, he complies with his obligation, "You… may call me Higgle. These are Socks and Sparky," he adds, gesturing to each of them in turn. "Was there… something you wished to say?"

"Aww naah, it can wait eh?" Rufus the Bibarel says almost nonchalantly, "I sorta interrupted your excitement, so I'll be quiet…"

"Hunh?" Sparky grunts, confused, "You're… apologising? When we were the ones being loud? The hell?!"

"Sparky!" Higgle snaps, shooting her a disapproving glare, "That was rude!"

"…sorry." Sparky mumbles, finally remembering her original task and handing the pillow over to Higgle at last, so that Socks could at least have some comfort.

"No no, please," Higgle insists, beckoning the Bibarel with his free hand, "You appear lonely"

"Er, well…" Rufus mumbles nervously, "I was just lookin' fer someone to talk to eh? It's been a while…"

"Oh, please do!" Higgle obliges, carefully swivelling around so that he and Socks are facing Rufus, "Wh-what is this place, and why are you here?"

"Oh, good question!" Rufus enthuses, placing his little paws together in an almost sagely manner, "I have no idea what this place is!" he finishes simply, smiling blankly at the trio.

"…oh" Higgle mutters, deflated, "Do you… know why you are here, at least?"

"Ohh yah, I know that one!" Rufus snorts in a strange, almost dejected burst of laughter, "I'm here because I lost my trainer!"

"L-l-lost?!" Sparky squeaks, jumping to ominous conclusions, "So this is a place for bad pokémon who lose their trainers?!"

"Yah, it was really strange eh?" Rufus babbles on, not picking up on Sparky's hysterics, "We were walking through this forest, and there was a biiiiig tree in the way! So I asked Sir 'Do you want me to cut down that tree for you, Sir? Cause I can cut that tree down real good!', and Sir nodded, which meant that he wanted me to cut the tree down eh?!"

"What…the?" Sparky mumbles, now confused beyond all reason for the Bibarel's extremely ambivalent approach to what she perceives as an extremely macabre situation. Meanwhile, Rufus blabbers on unknowingly, reciting his tale;

"So I got to work cuttin' down that tree, because Sir wanted me to!" He chatters, blinking dumbly for effect. "It took a looong time, because it was a big tree, but I cut it down real good, like I always did! But when I went to go tell Sir, he was nowhere to be found!"

"Nowhere to be… found?" Higgle surmises, building a conclusion in his mind, "So your trainer… abandoned you?"

"Aww naah, Sir is too nice to do that eh?" Rufus chuckles, "I just lost track of him, s'all!"

"Ohhk…?" Higgle mutters, his head pounding from confusion, "So how exactly did you end up here?"

"Ohh, some nice humans brought me here! I got a nice ride in the comfy van and everything!" Rufus explains simply, "The best I can figger, it's like a lost and found, but for pokémon as well as things!"

"Lost and found?" Higgle says to himself, "That doesn't make sense. We most certainly were not lost…"

"I'm sure Sir will find me again, and we'll be happy together again!" Rufus sighs happily, once again showing his mindless optimism, "So anyway, enough about me. What brought you all here eh? It's been a while since I've had cellmates!"

"Cellmates…?" Higgle mutters to himself, thought slowly enshrouding his mind. Sparky notices his eyes mist over, and decides to answer for him. "W-we…" she says quietly, still a little upset and confused about the situation, "We lost our trainer…"

"Ohh, you guys too?" Rufus gasps, not realising that Sparky means it in a completely different context, "Don't you worry! You're all so cute, I'm sure your trainer will come back here and find you eh?!"

Socks mumbles something sadly, and Sparky picks up on her despair due to Higgle still being in a 'thinking' state. "Umm… that's not gonna happen." she mumbles sadly, "You see, our trainer, she… p-passed away."

"Oh gosh, I'm sorry! I got it soooo wrong! That's so sad!" Rufus gasps, his bottom jaw falling to create an even more gormless look, "B-but why are you guys _here?_ You're not lost or anything… are you? Did the humans want dollars from you?"

"Doll…ars?" Sparky asks, her confusion mounting to even greater heights, "What's a dollars?"

"Well, they're these things that humans trade for important stuff like food, and nice things like couches!" Rufus begins explaining, "They look like paper sometimes, but also they can look like shiny circles too, and-"

'_Shiny circles…'_ echoes distantly through Higgle's mind as Rufus says this. It wades through the foggy, contemplative soup that his mind has stirred up, just barely making enough noise…

"S-s-shiny circles?!" he gasps, shocking everyone else in the area with his sudden outburst, "Did you say the humans wanted shiny circles from us?!"

"I-I think so, yah?" Rufus replies tentatively, still shocked at this surprise outburst from what he first perceived as a calm, quiet Kadabra, "And when they can't get the dollars they want, they take all of your things instead. They must really like those dollars…"

"Oh… oh gosh!" Higgle gasps, his head falling into his hands, "That explains everything! Ohh, Lady Holly, why didn't you tell us?!"

"Tell us… what, Higgle?" Socks mumbles quietly, "Did T-Trainer not have any dollars?"

Realisation hits Socks like a tonne of bricks, and she finds herself springing upright in spite of her seething head pain, "I-is that why all of this bad stuff has happened?! Because Trainer didn't have any dollars?!"

"…I think so, Socks" Higgle mutters slowly, his eyes fully shielded from view by his hands, "It all… it all makes sense now…"

"AARGH!" Socks screeches, seeming to have forgotten completely about the pain in her head. Grabbing the first thing she can, she lunges for the iron bars that have them all incarcerated. Her strength may be amplified right now, thanks to her rage, but still these iron bars won't _quite_ yield to her will. "Damn those humans!" she seethes, pulling at the bars as a means of attempting to relieve her fury, "I-I'll make them pay for hurting Trainer! It's all their fault!"

"Socks, calm down!" Higgle gasps, daring to approach her in spite of her current condition, "Losing Lady Holly was the fault of no-one, OK?!"

"No Higgle!" Socks fumes, now resorting to scratching furiously at the adjacent concrete wall. "It's their fault! If they didn't want all those dollars from Trainer, she would still be here! All happy, and lovely, and nice, and they're nasty bullies for doing that to Trainer!"

"Socks please, listen!" Higgle begs desperately, while a stunned Rufus and Sparky just look on, mouths agape, "Would Lady Holly want you to do this?!"

"Trainer isn't here anymore, Higgle!" Socks cries, going back to the bars again and even _biting_ on them this time, "Don't you want to hurt the people that hurt Trainer, too?!"

"Vengeance is not the answer, Socks!" Higgle tries his best to reason with her, "If we do that, we are just as bad as them!"

"No one is as bad as them, Higgle!" Socks screeches, "THEY HURT TRAINER!"

Higgle dares to place his hand on Socks' shoulder, as an attempt to calm her down physically rather than with his words, but in a move that shocks everyone, Socks finds herself dislodged from the bar with a loud 'SHING!' and falling backwards, taking Higgle down with her!

"W-what the?!" she exclaims, bounding back to her feet again instantly, "The hell just happened?!"

She looks down to her paws, and the fury in her face slowly dissolves into bemusement as she finds that she's holding a small section of rusty iron bar…

"Whoa…" Sparky gasps, walking over to the two of them, "You broke it, Socks…"

"I-I didn't mean to! It was an accident!" Socks gasps, dropping the bar out of fear and looking around worriedly. "I'm sorry! please don't be mad!"

"Mad?" Sparky chuckles, calming her down with a simple touch of hands, "Why would we be mad, Socks?"

"B-because I broke the thing, and I'm not supposed to break things, because that's baaaad!" Socks wails, coiling up into a ball and rocking back and forth.

"But _look_, Socks!" Sparky cries, pointing to where the bar was, "That's a hole! We might be able to escape out of that!"

"Hunh?" Socks mumbles, peering through a gap in her tightly coiled tail, her voice muffled, "S-so… it's a good thing? No one's mad?"

"Yes, a _really_ good thing!" Sparky cries, wrapping her arms as far as they'll reach around Socks' tightly coiled body. "Think you can squeeze through that hole and get us outta here?"

"Through… there?" Socks mumbles, slowly uncoiling herself and glancing towards the narrow gap between the bars, "…all alone?"

"Don't worry Socks, we'll be right here!" Sparky tries to encourage her upon noticing that obvious quiver of fear in her voice, "But we gotta get outta here, and soon! You're the only one who can do it, S-"

"Sparky, please!" Higgle interrupts, spooking the two of them out of their 'plans'. Finding his feet again, he gives them both a sharp stare. "We do not know what dangers await out there, Sparky." Higgle advises knowledgeably, "Exactly how do you suppose Socks will help us to escape from here?"

"Well…" Sparky muses, raising a hand to her chin, "This thing's locked from the outside, right? So that means there should be a key! If Socks can find that key, we can get the door unlocked and get outta here!"

"But we do not know exactly where that key is, Sparky" Higgle counters, once again the voice of reason, "And what do you suppose may happen if the humans find Socks out there? She could suffer a fate far worse than ours. We need to THINK about this!"

"I'm the one DOIN' all the thinking, dammit Higgle!" Sparky yells back, meanwhile Socks withdraws into herself once again,

"I-I don't like this anymore, Sparky. What if Higgle's right and it's scary out there?"

"Oh great, NOW look what you've done, Higgle!" Sparky rages, gesturing to the petrified Socks, curled up in a ball and shivering from a combination of worn off adrenaline and genuine fear, "How're we gonna escape now?!"

"I-I will think of a way!" Higgle retorts, glaring at the audacious Sparky for questioning his rule, "In the meantime, I would like YOU to consider your position! Talking back to me like that, and ordering Socks around, just who do you think you are?!"

"Someone's gotta take charge here Higgle, and it's not like YOU'RE doing anything useful now, is it?!" Sparks rages back, "All you're doing is complaining and keeping us 'safe' inside this metal box! Wanna be useful? Go pick that lock with your damn spoon or somethin'!"

"Why you insolent-!" Higgle starts, raising his hand in fury;

"NO HIGGLE!" Socks screams, springing out of her ball just in time to hold Higgle's arm back, "Don't do that! It'll be bad!"

Higgle's arm stays prone, as Socks' superior strength prevents him from striking Sparky with it. However, the glare in his eyes is enough to indicate just _how_ far Sparky overstepped the line there. Even she looks remorseful as she stares at the ground and slowly drags her foot across it, clearly feeling ashamed with herself over what she just caused.

"I don't like it when you fight…" Socks mopes, gently letting go of Higgle's arm, "I-It makes me feel like how I felt when I s-saw Trainer…"

The rage in the room softens almost instantly, and both Higgle and Sparky stare back at her, their faces dropping from guilt.

"I-I know it might be scary out there…" Socks mumbles, letting go of Higgle's arm and rubbing her little paws together, "But we can't be a family if all we do is fight, r-right? I'll… go out there, and see if I can find that key, OK?"

"Socks, wait!" Higgle stammers, raising a hand to stop her, albeit in vain.

"S-sorry Higgle…" Socks mutters, examining the little gap between the bars and judging for size, "But we'll all go crazy and start hating each other if we stay in here, so I gotta-"

"Just _one _minute!" Higgle urges, turning back and dashing over towards the still placid Rufus on the other side of the bars, "Rufus, is Socks in any danger out there?"

"Err…" the Bibarel slowly ponders, his eyes rising upwards in their sockets, "Well, the humans check on us before and after night time, so we should be fine like that eh? But there's also the watchy thingies on the walls…"

"Watchy… thingies?" Higgle mutters, confused at this slang that Rufus has just uttered.

"Oh yah, they're really weird eh?" Rufus says, pointing towards the apex of the walls and ceiling outside of their cells, "You see that weird box on the wall? It watches what we do, and tells the humans if we do anything wrong!"

"I see…" Higgle muses, watching the 'weird box' cautiously, "Is there any way to get past it without it seeing us?"

"Well…" Rufus says uncertainly, when the camera on the wall slowly revolves away from them, pointing in a completely different direction!

"…oh, you mean like that?" he asks, pointing to the camera again. "It does that sometimes"

"Yes!" Higgle cries, excitement coursing through him, "Now, Socks! Now is your chance!"

"I-It is?" Socks asks, "What do I do?!"

"Squeeze through the gap in the bars, and get over to that wall before the weird box sees you!" Higgle instructs, directing her attention to the camera, which luckily for them is still pointing away from them.

"O-OK!" Socks gasps, poking her head through the little gap, "I'll… try!"

With a lot of determined scrabbling and frustrated squeaks, Socks slowly squeezes her skinny body through the gap in the bars. She has to rotate herself several times to avoid getting stuck, but a combination of Furret flexibility and sheer stubbornness has her eventually forcing herself through the gap, popping out the other side and falling to the floor with a clumsy crash!

"Socks!" Higgle gasps, running up to the bars, "A-are you OK, dear?!"

"I-I'm… fine!" Socks gasps, wrenching herself back to her feet and rubbing her sore head, "What next, Higgle?"

"Get over to that wall, and quick!" Higgle commands. Even as he does so, the camera on the wall begins to slowly revolve back towards them.

"Quick, she's coming!" Rufus hollers from the next cell, "You're gonna get seen, eh?!"

"O-O-OK!" Socks cries, ignoring the throbbing pain in her head and dashing for the wall. Not even caring about crashing into it painfully, she flattens herself against it so that the camera won't 'see' her. For in her mind, she has but one mission right now…

"Way to go, Socks!" Sparky cheers, jumping up and down on the spot, "Wh-which way next, Rufus?"

Socks is pressed up against the wall, but there are two paths leading away from the cells. One follows adjacent to them, while the other points directly away from them. As there's no clear indication which hallway goes where, confusion begins to rise once again.

"Errrm…" Rufus hesitates uncertainly, "I really don't know. I've seen humans coming and going both ways…"

"We will just have to go with trial and error…" Higgle sighs, "Socks, try the path that lies straight ahead first. The watching box doesn't appear to turn that way!"

"Th-that one?" Socks asks, pointing down the hallway in front of them for clarification, "Okeydokey!"

Mindful of the camera on the corner of the wall, Socks takes her chance and bounds down the hallway, looking around fervently for some indication.

"See anything?" Sparky queries, "Like, something that looks like you could hide keys in it?"

"Lotta white…" Socks' voice echoes down the hall, "Just a sec…"

The squeaky noise of a door slowly opening echoes down the hallway, followed by Socks' padded feet taking a few tentative steps…

But then suddenly;

"EEEEEWWWW!" Socks cries, dashing out of the room in a flourish, "Smelly toilets!"

"…oh. It appears as though that was the wrong one, then," Higgle almost laughs at Socks' response, "My apologies, Socks. Give the other way a try?"

Socks just nods curtly, and turns to dash off in the other direction.

"WAIT!" Higgle yells before she can do so, "Wait for the watching box to look away!"

"Hunh? Ohh…" Socks realises, skidding to a clumsy halt on the floor and pressing herself back up against the wall. The camera eventually turns away again, and she charges off down the adjacent hallway this time, her hopes renewed due to her knowing that she's chosen the right path this time. She scampers off into the following, mercifully empty room, looking around for things that sparkle.

"Keys are shiny…" she mutters inwardly as she scrabbles across the building's wooden floors, still managing to ignore the pounding pain in her head and focus on the matter at hand, "S-so if I find shiny, I find keys!"

Socks persistently searches throughout the room, looking under desks and behind plant pots for keys, not realising that humans hide their things in completely different places to pokémon. However, her luck changes when she hops up onto a spindly office chair and spies a large set of keys on a hook, "Aha!"

With some difficulty, mostly due to the office chair's spinning, the determined Socks finally manages to jump from it and land clumsily on the computer desk in front of it, where she inadvertently stumbles across a keyboard to reach those keys. She picks them up in her mouth for ease of transport, when…

"So that's everything?" A voice echoes from down another hallway, evidently belonging to one human conversing with another.

"Yup, that's the lot," a second voice replies, "We couldn't find the owner of the residence, though. Stupid girl must've ran off and abandoned her poor pokémon."

Upon hearing those words, Socks' blood begins to boil. She starts clenching her teeth from anger, to the point of bending the metal key-ring in her mouth!

'They're… they're talking about Trainer!' she rages inwardly, unable to talk due to the keys in her mouth. Rooted to the spot from sheer fury, all she can do right now is stare loathingly at the two humans that are approaching her, completely unaware of her presence in the room.

"Whoa, seriously?" The first human gasps, stunned, "That's just shameful. Abandoning your pokémon over a few-"

However, in mid-sentence, he stops talking. For he has noticed a rather strange sight in front of his very eyes; a Furret.

This Furret is smaller than your average Furret, being only about three feet in length. It sports a few bruises, one of which is a particularly nasty one on its forehead, but the look in its eyes is what shocks the two men…

"W-what the?" The first man asks, "How'd a pokémon get in here?"

"I think it got _out_," the second responds, "The _how_ is still a pretty good question, though…"

Both humans approach Socks the Furret cautiously, unknowing of exactly how she could react.

"Careful now…" one human advises the other, who inches closer with his hands outstretched, "It could be hostile."

"No shit, Sherlock." the second replies, "Just look in its eyes…"

Socks growls as those hands quiver closer to her, still stuck in her dilemma. Does she teach these humans a lesson for insulting her trainer? Or does she free her friends?

"Noo!" Socks' muffled voice cries through the keys, "Nasty humans!"

Bounding agilely into the air, she slips through the human's enclosing hands and lands smoothly on his head!

The addition of her weight causes him to bang his head into the desk, and she uses this momentum to spring from on top of his head and rush back down the hall!

"Quick!" Socks gasps, sliding to a halt in front of the gate and throwing the keys at Sparky and Higgle, "We gotta go NOW! The humans are-!"

But just as she speaks, a loud, blaring alarm sounds, and the room's lighting is suddenly swapped out for a dark, ominous crimson.

"Oh no!" Higgle gasps, "Socks, what happened?!"

"The humans came back!" Socks shouts, "But don't worry, I'll go get them!"

"Socks no, wait!" Higgle pleads, "Violence is not the-"

"I'll be right baaaack!" Socks cries, bounding back down the hallway to confront the two humans again, this time with the dual intent of buying Sparky, Higgle and Rufus the time they need to escape, but also because she has a score to settle…

"Quick Sparky, quick!" Higgle demands, albeit mostly out of panic, "We cannot let Socks fight those humans! Who knows what they will do to her?!"

"I know, I KNOW Higgle!" Sparky yells back, trying desperately to manipulate the right key into the lock while Higgle – who is currently shaking from a combination of nerves and panic – holds her up so that she can reach the lock. "Quit movin' around so much, and we might be able to get outta here quicker!"

"S-s-s-sorry!" Higgle gasps, focusing as best he can to stabilise his vigorously shaking hands so that Sparky can lift the 'heavy' set of keys, and force what she hopes is the right one into the lock.

"C'monnn…" She puffs, a bead of sweat tricking down her face from a combination of concentration and hard work, stretching up as high, "Why'd these damn locks have to be so high – GOTCHA!" she cries, twisting the key into place and negotiating the door open, "Alright!"

"We will come back for you, Rufus!" Higgle cries, throwing the keys towards him through the bars of his cell, "But we have to help Socks right now!"

"Awesome!" Rufus laughs idly, simply watching the keys scratch across the floor in front of him, "I-it's no problem if you don't though eh?!"

Two more pokémon charge down the hallway to find a determined Socks bouncing around the room, furiously the two humans as best she can!

"Agh! Oww!" one gasps, having been assaulted with Socks' whip-like tail for the last time, "C'mon Brown, get this damn thing under control!"

"I'm the one trying, dammit Jeffries!" the human known as Brown fumes, diving for the manic Furret with his arms outstretched and missing horribly, "Put your net down and do somethin' useful!"

"Socks!" Higgle cries, grabbing her attention. She jumps off of Jeffries' head just in time for Brown to miss her with the net, conveniently 'catching' Jeffries' head inside of it!

"Guys, you made it!" Socks cries, a smile breaking across her face in spite of the steely determination burning in her eyes, "C'mon, let's get outta here!"

"I will condone vengeance just this once, OK Socks?" Higgle almost laughs as they all charge for the closed door on the other side of the room, "Never again!"

"You got it Higgle!" Socks chuckles, turning back to flash her dear friend a smile, "Now let's find some way outta here, huh?!"

"W-wait, what about Rufus?!" Sparky cries, sliding to a halt. "We can't just leave him here!"

"…you're right." Higgle admits, "We should double back and help him escape too!"

However, with the three of them caught off guard, none of them notice until it's too late, and Sparky finds herself trapped inside of a net!

"Gotcha!" Jeffries roars victoriously, dragging the tiny Emolga towards him while she's trapped inside of the net!

"SPARKY!" Both Higgle and Socks cry at once, charging after Jeffries in an effort to save their friend!

Things only get worse however when the door bangs open, and several more humans wielding nets charge inside the building. Socks manages to free Sparky from Jeffries' grip with a well-aimed headbutt to the gut, causing him to drop the net from pain, but that doesn't help their situation much; humans are pouring into the building, further reducing their chances of escape by the second!

"The door is open! run!" Higgle commands, and all three charge towards the wide open door, careful to avoid the wide reaching grasps of many human hands and nets!

"B-but what about Rufus?!" Sparky pleas, not wanting to abandon him after all the help he's given them.

"We will have to return for him at a later date!" Higgle yells, "Socks, are you OK dear?"

"Y-yeah…" Socks gasps, her breathing a little shallow from all the running she's been doing lately, "I'll be… f-fine!"

"Nearly there guys, c'mon!" Sparky tries to encourage her friends, "Nearly therrrrre!"

One last, carefully timed jump has Sparky just barely evading the reach of another net, and she rolls out of the doorway, emerging into the freedom of fresh air at last!

"Alright!" she cries, raising her hands into the air triumphantly, "Made it!"

Turning around, she says "We did it, guys!" and expects to see her two friends just behind her, out of breath and victorious, just like her.

However, they're not right behind her.

"Guys, NO!" she gasps, raising her hands to her mouth at the horrible sight;

An unconscious Socks lies flat on the ground – having fallen victim to sheer exhaustion at the worst possible moment – with several humans surrounding her, wielding nets and angry facial expressions, while Higgle struggles with all his limited might to escape from the grasp of the net that has him trapped!

"NO!" she gasps, ready to charge back in there and save them, "You let my friends go!"

"Sparky!" Higgle shouts from inside of the net, "Go! You have to escape!"

"B-but!" Sparky begins to protest, but her squeaking attracts the attention of the other humans!

"There's the other one!" one of them yells, "Get it! Don't let it escape!"

"AHHH!" Sparky screams, jumping to the side to avoid yet another net, and is forced to run away from the building and leave her two friends to avoid being captured herself!

"Higgle! Socks!" she gasps, tearing through the busy, dirty streets as fast as her little feet will carry her, "W-why?!"

More charging through the unfamiliar roads has Sparky evading the pursuant humans for good, but that's only the start of her problems;

"No humans…" she puffs, slowly catching her breath again and looking around fervently, "Don't you worry guys, I'm comin' to get-"

"Hey kid" another voice interrupts her, causing her to spin around in shock, "W-who're you?!"

Calmly 'stepping' out of the dirty, garbage infested shadows, a small greenish pokémon approaches her. Consisting mostly of what appears to be a bag, with two putrid arms made of compacted trash, the pokémon known as Trubbish speaks. "You new around here?"

"Uhh, y-yeah" Sparky shivers, knowing better than to talk to strangers, but feeling as though she has no alternative right now, "H-hey, do you know where I am?"

"I'll tell you where you are." Another pokémon answers her, also exiting from the shadows. This pokémon resembles an orange lizard in appearance, with baggy yellow 'clothes' covering most of its body, and a huge red crest sits on top of its head, giving it an intimidating, dangerous appearance.

"You're in our territory, kid," The Scrafty chuckles, taking a puff of the cigarette in its hand, "And we don't like intruders. Do we Trub?"

"No we don't." Trubbish agrees, and both pokémon bear down on the tiny, petrified Sparky. "So unless you're a customer…" Trubbish snarls, its putrid breath almost choking the poor Sparky, "You're an intruder. And what do we do to intruders, Scrafty?"

Scrafty pounds its fist into its opposite hand, and Trubbish chuckles menacingly, "Get the picture, kid?"

"C-customer?!" Sparky squeaks, positively terrified right now, "Wh-what kinda things do you guys sell?!" she asks, hoping to escape from this situation by any means necessary.

Trubbish and Scrafty both exchange an ominous smile, and Scrafty chuckles, "…yup. Definitely an intruder…"

"Wait, _wait, please!"_ Sparky begs, "I'll go away, I promise! I just don't know where I am!"

"All the better" Scrafty laughs evilly, "No one will miss you that way…"

"_Noooo!_" Sparky screams, once again tearing down the dark and dirty streets, only this time she fears for more than just her freedom. Her very _life_ could be in danger this time!

Not having any clue where she's going, she's forced to simply charge blindly through the labyrinthine streets, hoping against hope that she'll find an exit, or better yet, _help_!

Scrafty and Trubbish keep up with her easily, due to them knowing the area, but Sparky ends up falling to the ground on the edge of a crowded street, where the multitudes of humans are so busy that they don't even notice the two pokémon emerge from nowhere, bearing down predatorily on a third.

"No no, please!" Sparky gasps, scrabbling to her feet and raising an arm to defend herself as best she can, "Stop being so nasty!"

"The world's a nasty place, kid." Scrafty chuckles menacingly, as the two pokémon slowly walk towards her, forcing her to back away from them down a long pier.

"That doesn't mean you have to _be_ nasty!" Sparky pleads, very conscious of how little pier she has left.

"So young, so innocent…" Trubbish laughs, and Sparky kneels down so that they're face to face. Her eyes, brimming with unshed fear, stare into his merciless, empty pupils.

"Yeah. You're right." He says, in a fashion so blunt it's almost like he's owning up to this fact. Sparky looks back at him confusedly, but then Scrafty grins again. With another puff of his cigarette, he blows the smoke into her face, "…we like it this way!"

Backing away from the smoke, Sparky coughs and chokes on it, realising all too late that she's run out of pier!

With a lot of desperate flailing, the tiny Emolga slips from the edge, falling to the depths below with a heart-twisting scream, "AAAHHHHHHHHH!"

Meanwhile, Scrafty kneels over the edge, glancing downwards.

"What're you doing?" Trubbish asks him, narrowing its eyes.

"I wanna see the _splash_!" Scrafty laughs, taking another puff.

"You're sick. You know that, right?" Trubbish mutters disdainfully, turning away from him.

"…Yeah, I know." Scrafty sighs, almost shocked by his own heartlessness. "Let's… go find some customers."

Trubbish nods, and the pair slowly walk back down the pier, disappearing back into the busy crowds as if nothing had happened…

* * *

**Author's note:**

**Hey guys. Another update for you all. And quite the cliffhanger, huh?! I hope it doesn't disappoint!**

**As you can obviously tell, the three main pokémon have been split up now. What are your guys' thoughts on that? Also, I reckon you can guess what city is featured in this episode. There should be enough clues available?**

**Plus, there's a poll on my profile page that I'd like you to take a look at if you wouldn't mind. **

**As always, any and all feedback is greatly appreciated. What do you want to happen next in this story? What are your thoughts so far?**

**You guys are important to me as reviewers. It really means a lot.**

**Thanks for sticking with me this long, guys. **


	7. Lost But Not Forgotten

**Chapter Seven – Lost But Not Forgotten**

Prison cells are cold, uninviting places at the best of times. Their effect can be lessened somewhat if you try to make the best of a bad situation, but when there's only bad, it's simply not possible.

Two pokémon cuddle into each other, forgetting the world that's going by without them. For as far as they're aware, there's nothing left in this world for them except for each other. So what's the point in caring?

"D… D'you think Sparky's OK, Higgle?" Socks the Furret mopes, her forehead bruise still vicious and painful as she rests her head into his shoulder, attempting to blink away tears at the thought of her friend's unknown plight.

"I…" Higgle responds hesitantly, unsure of his answer. He doesn't want to give her false hope and lie to her, but he doesn't want to lower her spirits any more than they are already. Sometimes there's no right answer, and situations such as this would be one of those times.

Stuck in his lose-lose situation, Higgle slowly mumbles, "I-I don't know, Socks," and wraps his arms tighter around her, "I hope she is…"

Socks finds herself unable to answer, due to the overwhelming feeling of grief that's been bubbling up inside of her. The way she sees it, it's completely her fault that they got separated.

"I-If I didn't fall asleep, then we'd all be together, and free from this nasty place, a-and-" she sniffles, only for Higgle to stop her before she can berate herself any further.

"It's not your fault, dear." He answers quietly, "Don't beat yourself up over this. You have been through enough already…"

"Yah, don't be sad!" Rufus the Bibarel tries to comfort them from the adjacent cell, "You got really close eh? Why, I'm sure next time'll be even better!"

In spite of Rufus' mindless optimism, Socks lets out a large sniff, and continues to sob into Higgle's shoulder. "There won't… won't be a next time I am afraid, Rufus." Higgle mutters slowly, resisting the urge to reprimand him because he knows that Rufus was just trying to cheer her up. "Sparky… she was our driving force. I had not noticed until lately, but she was always the one that took action when it was required. Without her… w-without… her…"

Higgle's sentence literally dissolves away, along with his emotions, and the two pokémon once again retire into simply hugging; holding onto the only thing they have left in this world…

"M-maybe you could try and find her?" Rufus suggests carefully, knowing that the two are emotionally fragile right now, "And then you could be together again, and-"

"It would be fruitless, Rufus." Higgle deadpans, lifting his head up to address the Bibarel, "If we were to attempt another escape, not only would we likely fail, but we may also possibly get split up. And that is not a risk we can afford to take. N-not again…"

Higgle blinks away another tear that stubbornly rolls down his face. He buries his head in Socks' soft fur again, and even Rufus realises that now is not the best time to talk.

"Aww, I wish these bars weren't here…" He mumbles inwardly, placing his paws on them and giving the rusty bars a gentle shake for illustrative purposes.

"W-we all do…" Socks sniffles, her sharp ears picking up on Rufus' soft whispering.

"Yeah, because then I could go over to you guys, a-and give you both biiig hugs!" Rufus cries, over-enthusiastic in his approach once again, and –as usual – missing the point completely, "That'd cheer you both up, eh?!"

"No no, Rufus, that is not what she-" Higgle starts to explain, but Socks lifts her head up suddenly, causing him to stop out of surprise, "W-what is it, Socks?"

"I hear walking…" she mutters, her eyes narrowing out of a combination of mistrust and uncertainty, "What're those nasty humans up to now?"

All three pokémon stop talking for a moment, and sure enough, the soft clapping noise of shoes hitting a solid floor can be heard. Socks and Higgle hug into each other again, bracing for the worst, but a voice catches them off guard;

"H-hello?" The soft, female tone quavers, echoing timidly down the hallway, "Do… y-you have any pokémon here r-right now, please?"

The voice trails off into a tiny squeak, indicating a sheer lack of self confidence in this human. The three pokémon can't help but listen in, due to said voice enquiring about pokémon, and by extension, likely enquiring about them.

"It's OK honey, you tried…" Another, older voice tries to console the girl. Also female, the older voice – perhaps the younger girl's mother – addresses what can only be assumed as one of the men 'on guard'.

"We moved here from recently from another region, and my daughter here's looking to give a pokémon a second chance. Do you have any up for adoption?"

"Well, we _do _have a couple of pokémon in at the moment…" a third voice echoes uncertainly, presumably belonging to one of the guards, "But I'm not so sure these ones are fit for adoption. Are you sure you don't want to just _catch_ a pokémon instead?"

"B-but…" the girl stammers, "But what about those poor pokémon that don't have trainers? They'd be so lonely…"

"Listen, honey," her mother tries to reason with her, "Some of these pokémon have been mistreated and abandoned. They might not be so… accepting of a new trainer. Are you sure?"

"S-sure I'm sure!" the girl responds, a slight hint of confidence creeping into her voice, "All pokémon need to be loved… don't they?"

"Are you absolutely sure you don't want to catch your very own pokémon and love that one instead?" her mother enquires, "That way it'll be _your_ pokémon, not the hollow, discarded shell of someone else's…"

"T-that's not nice, mom…" the girl quivers, her voice shaking from her own defiance, "J-just because a pokémon doesn't have an owner any more, d-doesn't mean they're like broken or something! They need love too…"

"Alright, if you're sure…" her mother mutters, a stern tone marring her voice; presumably from disdain at her daughter's attitude, "We would like to see what pokémon you have available, please."

"Very well," the guard's gruff voice responds, and the jangle of keys can be heard ringing down the hallway, along with three sets of footsteps, "We don't have many in right now, but you're free to have a look."

Socks hugs tightly into Higgle once again as three humans approach them; the first, the dark-haired guard known as Jeffries, carrying a huge set of keys in his hand.

"You OK Rufus?" he smiles, staring towards the placid looking Bibarel. Rufus makes a simple chittering noise in response, followed by a thumbs up, and Jeffries shakes his head fondly. "We've had Rufus here for a few years…" he explains to the two behind him, "He's basically become our little mascot since then. 'Fraid he's not up for adoption, though," he adds, instead walking past Rufus' cell and towards Socks and Higgle's. "These two are the only ones we have available at the moment."

He steps aside to let the others have a closer look, and the young girl falls to her knees so that she's face to face with them both. "Oh wow…" she gushes, carefully adjusting her black rimmed glasses, "They're so cute!"

Two pokémon slowly look up and stare at this young girl who's just approached them both. Somewhere in her early teens, she brushes her chest length blonde hair out of her eyes and analyses them both, "…they look scared?"

"I'm not surprised," Jeffries says, folding his arms and staring them both down, "Their trainer abandoned them and left them to fend for themselves."

Socks visibly recoils at the mention of her trainer, especially in such a negative light, while Jeffries continues with, "Thrown out into the big bad world all alone like that, you'd be scared too huh?"

The girl simply nods, but narrows her eyes in thought, "A-are you sure their trainer _…abandoned_ them, though? I-I read this thing in a magazine once about a Mareep that got abandoned by its trainer, and it turned all angry. These pokémon don't look angry? They just look… sad…"

"Maybe not _now…"_ Jeffries groans, rubbing at the scratch on his forehead, "But you should've seen them earlier today. They were fighting to get outta here like there was no tomorrow."

"Well… wouldn't you?" the girl reasons, looking back at him, "Being trapped in a place like this, it'd drive anyone nuts."

With an unexpected stab of confidence, she throws caution to the wind and asks, "C-can I go in there? It's… kinda hard to make friends with them through these bars…"

"Catherine!" her mother gasps, "They could be dangerous!"

"I-I know, mom…" the girl known as Catherine mumbles insecurely once again, tucking her hands into the overhanging sleeves of her stripy t-shirt and physically withdrawing into herself with them, "B-but how'm I gonna get to know them, a-and make friends and stuff if I can't even touch them?"

She removes her hands from her sleeves again, and makes an attempt to squeeze her hand through the bars. However, the custom made bars are so close together that she can't even get her fingers completely through without risk of getting her hand stuck.

"See?" she says quietly, carefully withdrawing her hand again, "I-If you can't even make contact, how can you make… friends?"

Both Jeffries and Catherine's mother stare at each other, exchanging a tacit acknowledgement between them, and Jeffries nods, unlocking the door to their cell. "I would still advise caution, though. They may attack without warning…"

"I-is this human nice, Higgle?" Socks whispers into his ear.

"I… am unsure, Socks." Higgle answers slowly. Turning around to confront the human, he says "I suppose we will have to find out…"

Once again, the rusty door to the cell groans closed, with Jeffries holding the keys in his hand, as if on 'standby', in case he needs to open it again quickly.

Still a little sniffly, Socks slowly looks upwards, and her eyes meet with the hazel-brown ones of the girl in front of her. Catherine has sat down, cross-legged in front of the pair so that she's roughly the same height as them. Wearing a simple baggy shirt with overhanging sleeves, blue denim jeans and sneakers, and a black beanie hat covering the top of her head, she slowly extends a hand towards the Furret. "H-hello there?" she squeaks, her hand hovering just in front of the wary Socks, "My… name's Catherine. Can… c-can we be friends?"

Socks shoots Higgle a nervous glance, and he nods slowly back at her. Carefully, she tiptoes forwards to meet the girl's hand.

"Oh gosh… you're so soft!" she squeals inwardly, cautiously ruffling Socks' fluffy head fur, "H-how could someone abandon pokémon this cute?"

Once again, Socks flinches at the implication of her trainer Holly having abandoned them, and looks downwards sadly.

"O-oh… I didn't mean it like that!" Catherine gasps, leaning forwards so that she can look the Furret in the eyes, "I'm so sorry!"

After looking into Socks' eyes for a moment, she says "There's… no angry here at all. Just... sadness. Both of them."

"Come here, honey…" she mumbles, slowly picking up the little Furret in a movement that surprises everyone.

"Catherine, be careful!" her mother screeches from outside of the bars, "You don't just pick up a strange pokémon! It could attack!"

"I-it would've attacked me already if it wanted to, Mom…" Catherine insists, "Look at the poor thing… i-it just wants a hug, that's all…"

Cradling the little Furret in her arms, she mumbles "E-everything's OK, don't worry…"

And for the first time today, Socks finds herself smiling. She isn't quite sure why, but this strange young girl has her forgetting her sadness, even if only for a moment. Tears still sparkle in Socks' eyes, but for once, she's almost… happy.

"This human… she's nice, Higgle." Socks mutters softly, cuddling into the young girl, "She says nice words, and she treats me nice too…"

Higgle acknowledges Socks' statement with a mildly surprised gasp, knowing just how wary she usually is of new people.

_'How bizarre…'_ he thinks to himself, raising a hand to his chin,_ 'There must be something different about this girl, for Socks to settle down so easily…'_

"S-see mom?" Catherine asks her mother, "It doesn't matter what happened to them. It's what's happen_ing_ to them that's important. If you trust them, they'll… trust you."

"Just be _careful_!" her mother insists, staring at the two pokémon in the cell with her, "Have you seen the claws on that thing?!"

"Claws?" Catherine asks slowly, peering down to the Furret in her arms, now snuggling into her and nodding off to sleep. She carefully slides one arm out from underneath Socks to inspect her paws, and she does indeed discover minute claws among the fur.

"Aww, these are tiny mom!" she chuckles, "H-how could you be scared of these? You had a pet Persian when you were younger!"

"T-that's different!" her mother begins to retort, but her words dissolve away into utter disbelief when this shy, demure girl starts to open up to these two supposedly vicious pokémon.

"H-hello there?" she asks to Higgle, having noticed the Kadabra slowly edge his way closer to her, "A-are you and Furret friends?"

Higgle narrows his eyes in slight confusion, wondering why she would ask such a question. Nevertheless though, he nods slowly, wary yet curious at the same time.

"Heehee, you're such a gentleman." She giggles, "Oh, I know!"

Careful not to disturb the sleeping Socks in her lap, she lifts the black beanie from her head, and shakes her hair back into place, "Here you go!"

Now using both hands, she squashes her beanie onto Higgle's head, "A gentleman needs a hat, after all!"

The stunned Kadabra flails to raise the woollen edges of the beanie back above his eyes so he can see, and just stares at this girl, completely confused.

"What… the?" he mutters, feeling the beanie hat that's covering basically all of his head, "She… gave me a _hat_?"

"Heehee, you look funny like that Higgle…" the drowsy Socks chitters quietly from Catherine's lap.

"And now to introduce myself to this gentleman!" Catherine giggles. Holding her arm out, she says, "It's a pleasure meeting you, Mr Kadabra!"

Still confused beyond all reason, Higgle shakily extends his hand to meet hers, a faint smile stretching across his face as he does so.

'_First she bestows her own headwear upon me, and now she greets me like a human would greet another…' _he thinks, carefully shaking the girl's hand, _'Can… we really trust this young girl?'_

"Ohh, you're both so nice!" Catherine giggles, pulling Higgle by the arm into a hug. Still perturbed by the girl's actions, Higgle slowly lowers his head into a resting position atop her shoulder.

'_She is so blissfully innocent…'_ he says inwardly, stretching his arms as far as they would reach around her back, partially for courtesy, but also because it's the first time in a long while that he's felt… safe.

"Remember Catherine, you can only take _one_!" her mother insists from behind the bars.

"Whuh?" Catherine gasps, and both pokémon stare up at the middle aged woman warily.

"J-just one?" Higgle mutters to himself, foreseeing only negative outcomes.

"But but!" Catherine tries to plead, "But they're only small! We've got enough room for both, haven't we?!"

"You know how much it costs to keep a pokémon, dear…" her mother sighs exasperatedly, "And we're tight on money as it is! Do you really thinking adding the upkeep of _two_ pokémon will help?"

"I-I'll get a job, and make some money then?!" Catherine squeaks, her voice a bizarre tinge of determined and petrified at the thought, "Y-you won't have to spend _any_ money on them, I-I promise!"

"That's a very big responsibility of you, Catherine…" her mother says, secretly proud of her shy, insecure daughter selflessly stepping up for the sake of another living being, "But what about school? How do you expect to make enough money with your school commitments as well?"

"I-I'll try!" Catherine cries, lifting Socks from her lap and hugging the both of them tighter, "I'll try really really hard!"

"I'm sorry dear," her mother sighs, averting her gaze, "But I really don't think you can handle all of that. You're only young, how can you expect to take care of yourself and these pokémon at the same time?"

"B-but-" Catherine mumbles insecurely, however she gets distracted by a surprise reaction from Higgle. Slowly, he removes himself from the hug, and then removes her beanie from his head, handing it back to her. His eyes sparkling with tears, he backs away from them both and crashes to the ground, staring downwards and seemingly devoid of all hope.

"Higgle…" Socks whispers, turning back to stare at him, "Wh-what are you doing?"

"You… deserve happiness, Socks." Higgle mutters curtly, "If it means we have to be separated for you to be happy, then I… I am f-fine with that."

"B-but Higgle…" Socks squeaks, and she finds herself being carried over towards him.

"You really are a true gentleman, huh?" Catherine sniffs, kneeling down in front of the Kadabra. "Y-you win, mom." She mutters darkly, looking up at her mother, "I'll just take one…"

And Higgle watches Socks disappear past the bars of their cell, in the arms of Catherine. With another rusty scraping noise, the door to the cell is shut, and he is left. Alone.

"Aww, it'll be alright eh?" Rufus the Bibarel attempts to comfort him from the adjacent cell, "People come in asking aboot pokémon all the time. You'll be adopted in no time at all, I'm sure!"

"…no, it won't, Rufus." Higgle sighs, watching his last friend be slowly carried away from him, her eyes currently as large and gleaming as Christmas baubles, "I-I promised Socks we would not be separated scarcely an hour ago, a-and now I have broken that promise. Like everything else, I suppose…"

Full of self loathing, Higgle resigns to staring at the ground, unwilling to do anything else. So far, everything he has promised the two girls has proven false, and in his mind, he is the only one he can blame...

"HIGGLE!"

The Kadabra's head tilts upwards just slightly to address the voice, and to his utmost surprise he finds Socks dashing back towards him, with Catherine in hot pursuit.

"Higgle, I'm so sorry!" Socks wails, attempting to squeeze her tiny paws through the bars and reach for him, "I can't go! Not without you, Higgle!"

"Socks…" Higgle mumbles, dragging himself back to his feet and meeting her on the other side of the bars, "B-but why? This could be your only chance at salvaging some aspect of happiness in your life!"

"I don't even know what you just said!" Socks half chuckles, half splutters from tears, "B-but I don't care about that! Who's gonna teach me long words and stuff if you're not there, Higgle?!"

"You will learn!" Higgle cries, "If you put your mind into it, you can achieve anything Socks! Let no one tell you otherwise!"

"B-but…" Socks mopes, staring at him through the bars, "But Higgle…"

"Now go, Socks." He smiles weakly, "Our family may be broken, but you can put the pieces back together… OK?!"

"Higgle…" Socks weeps, her enormous eyes staring guiltily at him. Higgle tears his face away from hers to try and save what little dignity he has remaining, only for another sound to surprise him.

'reeeeeeek!' The rusty door screeches, opening slowly once again. Standing in the doorway is none other than Catherine. She rushes back to Higgle, and says "You forgot your hat, Mr Kadabra!"

With a small smile, she once again squashes her beanie onto his head and giggles, "Now let's go home, huh?"

'…_what?' _Higgle mutters inwardly, staring up at the young girl once again, '_I thought she was taking Socks?'_

"I-I didn't have the heart to split them up," her mother explains to Jeffries the guard, "I mean, just look at them..."

"Yeah, I don't blame you." Jeffries chuckles, touched to the point of forcing back his own tears, "T-that moment there was just adorable..."

"I hope you know what you're doing, Catherine!" her mother calls from outside of the cell.

"I'll try extra hard, mom!" she says in response, helping Higgle to his feet, "C'mon Mr Kadabra! Let's get going!"

And shocked even beyond belief, Higgle manipulates his numb limbs forwards, with the ecstatic Catherine happily leading him out of his cell at long last.

"Higgle!" Socks gasps, rushing forwards and practically wrapping herself around him, "Y-you can come with us now?"

"I-I think so." Higgle smiles, a happy tear escaping from his eye at the thought of _not_ having his last friend taken away from him, "Let us _both _put the pieces back together then, shall we?"

"That sounds… really nice, Higgle." Socks sniffs, uncoiling herself from around him and instead simply holding onto his hand. Both pokémon smile warmly at their new 'friend', and she leads the pair back down the hallway with her mother in tow. It isn't much, but Socks and Higgle may finally have found some security in their uprooted life. They may be without Sparky, something both pokemon lament, but finally something _good_ has happened to them.

"Aww… ya gotta love happy endings eh?" Rufus sobs happily to himself, wiping away tears with his paw, "Maybe that'll happen to me when Sir comes back…"

* * *

**Author's note:**

**Whew! **

**And here's another update for you all. I am actually quite happy with this one, as not only does it portray some deep emotion (something I really struggle with as a writer), so I'm somewhat proud of my efforts. Plus, I'm sure you guys were all hoping for something GOOD to happen to these poor guys, huh? ;_;**

**Catherine is technically an OC, based on someone I know fairly well (and if she's read this far without realising, I'll be shocked). Also, let's hear it for Rufus the Bibarel? He's based on the Canadian stereotype for those who can't tell. Plus, there's one small reference to another fic in this chapter. Let's see if someone can find it. :3**

**For those wondering what's happened to Sparky, that'll be found out next chapter. This one was a bit of a timeskip showing that happens to Higgle and Socks. Sparky will be the sole point of interest for the rest of the story, with a couple of chapters here and there showing how Higgle and Socks are getting on with their new owner, Catherine. **

**Anyways, that's all from me for a little while. Oh, and be sure to vote in the poll I've got on my profile! :D**

**As always, feedback would be greatly appreciated. Over and out.**


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